


I'm Here to Dance

by kisstheprincessofpurewhite



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Break Dance AU, Eventual reveal, F/M, Gen, I Blame Tumblr, Miraculous Moves, Multi, and jen-iii, both on tumblr, hope you like it, how did I even get in this fandom, inspired by starrycove, love square, my spotify history has forever been tainted, my take on this au, thanks hawkdaddy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-18
Updated: 2016-04-16
Packaged: 2018-05-27 12:55:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 53,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6285319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kisstheprincessofpurewhite/pseuds/kisstheprincessofpurewhite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alya drags Marinette to the hot new club "Miraculous" where it's winner take all on the dance floor. After an embarrassing first encounter, Marinette dons a costume and challenges the champ, Chat Noir, as Ladybug. Marinette embraces the Paris break dancing scene, but times are getting tougher and competition even more so.</p><p>Aged-up characters, complete AU<br/>Inspired by @starrycove's break dance au as well as @jen-iii's picture of Chat and Ladybug. Nothing really original, just my take.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to finish the entire work before I published, but I don't want to miss the hype-train on this AU, so here it is.  
> I want to preface this by saying I have little dance experience. I took ballet as a kid and then did some guard in marching band, but other than that I literally know nothing besides what movies and TV tell me. I would be completely willing to change any inconsistencies that occur in the narrative. Please comment.

“ _…and two and three and…”_

Marinette followed along with the rest of the dancers as they moved between first and second position. This was beginning of the customary warm up for her ballet class, and the dancer was fairly certain she could do the entire thing in her sleep at this point. She mimicked her classmates in the ballet version of lip-service and let her mind wander.

Alya had mentioned going to a club tonight. Marinette was hoping it wouldn’t be like last time, or the time before that. Alya always wanted to go out clubbing when they had a free night from the Academy, and Marinette always wanted to stay home. Clubs just weren’t her scene; all the noise and flashing lights gave her migraines, not to mention how all the people dancing so close made her claustrophobic.

“This club is different,” Alya had said. “Or so I hear.”

“You haven’t actually been?” Marinette asked suspiciously.

“Well, no, its super exclusive, from what I hear…”

“-nette, Marinette!” Alya’s voice trailed off in Marinette’s memory as she was jolted back into reality by the instructor, Mme. Bustier. “I’m glad you are excited to practice your warm ups, but, if you wouldn’t mind, the rest of us would like to begin,” Mme. Bustier teased.

Marinette felt her entire face go red. She had let her mind wander a little too far and had continued the warm ups after her classmates had finished. “Uh- _pardon moi_ , Mme. Bustier, I- I was- uh…”

Marinette heard Chloe Bourgeois whisper something to her friend, Sabrina and they both laughed. Marinette blushed even redder and hung her head. Mme. Bustier took pity on Marinette and began the lesson without the end of the girl’s sentence.

Though the rest of the class went without a hitch, Marinette could not live down her shame from the beginning. After class was over, she was sure her face was still red. As she packed up her duffle bag and started to make a hasty exit, she ran headlong into one of her peers.

“Ohh!” he gasped as the wind was knocked out of him, he hunched over and held his stomach.

“Oh my gosh, I’m-“ Marinette began and then her tongue froze when she realized who she had run into. “S- s-sorryohmygoshI’msosorry,” she breathed into one word.

Adrien Agreste lifted his head after take a few breaths and brushed off the front of his shirt. “No broken bones, I’m fine Marinette.” Marinette knew that, even if this moment was somehow magically erased from history, she would never live down her shame.

“Adrihoney!” Chloe said as she thrust herself in between the two of them, and Marinette scowled at her. “You promised me you would take me to the movies tonight! That new-“

Marinette managed to slip away as Adrien was trying to calmly pry his arm away from Chloe. 

* * *

Marinette met with Alya on the steps of L'Académie d'Art Paris after classes were over for the day. The latter girl was typing frenziedly on the keys of her laptop with a determined sneer on her face. Marinette popped a squat next to her, lounging against the steps, and unwrapped some gum for herself.

“Hey, gimme some,” said Alya, not bothering to look up from her work.

Marinette sighed and held over a stick of gum for Alya.

“Can you unwrap it for me and stick it in my mouth?” Alya asked.

“What?! No!” said Marinette. “I’m not your slave.”

“Please, Marinette, this is due in- fuck, you know I can’t type and talk at the same time!”

Marinette sighed and began unwrapping the gum. She held it close enough for Alyato take the stick in between her teeth, but Marinette refused to feed her best friend. Alya had been desperately trying to find a place to publish her new article: “Correlations between Oil Paints and Absentmindedness.” An exposé on how the fumes from oil paints actually caused artists to be (quote, unquote) “absentminded.” Marinette knew how hard Alya worked with so little recognition, and simply kept her company on the steps of their mutual school.

Marinette laid her head back to bask in the late afternoon sun. She could take a nap right here before Alya undoubtedly dragged her to this new club.

“…And try to pick something more flattering than turquoise next time, Sabrina…” Marinette curled her lip as she heard the pretentious voice of Chloe Bourgeois, but did not open her eyes.

Her blue eyes snapped open as she felt like something pass in front of the sun. She realized that Chloe was actually stepping over Marinette in order to get to her limo.

“Hey, you can go around, there’s plenty of room!” snapped Marinette as she pushed Chloe’s leg away from her face. Chloe stumbled a bit before slapping the top of Alay’s computer down and off her lap.

“Hey!” Alya shrieked as she dived, too late, to save the device. It hit the concrete with a smash.

“What the hell is wrong with you Chloe?!” Marinette stood up, almost nose to nose with the blonde girl.

“Well, if you and your little friend stayed out of my way-“

“There is literally twenty-feet at least of steps around us, you didn’t have to literally step over us!”

“What’s going on here?” asked a new voice and the two girls turned to the newcomer.

Chloe brightened considerably and pushed Marinette to the ground. “Adrikins!” she exclaimed and wrapped her arms around Adrien Agreste’s broad shoulders. “Now, forget the movies, lets go to this cool new club-…”

Marinette was about to wrestle Chloe to the ground before Alya steered her away by the shoulders.

“C’mon, she’s not worth it, and you don’t want to fight her in front of Adrien,” Alya whispered in her ear. Marinetti’s face turned red as she and Alya walked away.

“Bye Alya, bye Marinette,” Adrien called after them. Alya waved back for the both of them, knowing Marinette didn’t have the courage built up yet. “Chloe, I have plans tonight, I can’t just…”

His voice faded as Marinette and Alya made their way down the street.

“How’s your computer?” asked Marinette

Alya patted her computer bag. “Its fine, a few scratches on the cover, but it’s not that bad. And I had submitted my article just before Chloe came along.”  
“I shouldn’t have pushed her, it only provoked her.”

Alya shrugged. “If you ask me, she should get pushed a little more than she does, then maybe she’d actually start being decent someday.”

“Now that would never happen.” The two girls shared a giggle and entered the coffee shop they frequented after school. They both got their usual (low-fat vanilla latte for Alya, whole caramel mocha for Marinette).

Nathanael, the barista, blushed as he made their coffees for them. Marinette smiled gently at him. He went to the Academy too, as part of the painting and sculpting program. He fumbled a little as he drew both Alya and Marinette’s faces on their cups with a flourish. He blushed deep red when his and Marinette’s fingers touched when she accepted her cup. Marinette smiled, and she and Alya headed to their regular table.

“Now, I think we should head to my place and then yours before we got to the club,” said Alya.

“Hey, hey, I haven’t agreed to going yet,” said Marinette.

“Oh why not, girl?” whined Alya. “We haven’t gone out together in over two weeks.”

“Yeah, it’s not like we see each other literally every day or anything,” Marinette said with squinted eyes.

Alya stuck her tongue out. “C’mon, it’ll be fun.”

“How?”

“Its a…” Alya paused to take a breath for dramatic effect.

“‘It’s a’ what?” Marinette asked impatiently.

“A breakdancing club!” Alya used gratuitous jazz hands to emphasize her point. Marinette’s face fell and she groaned.

“What?” asked Alya. “I thought you loved breakdancing!”

“Yeah, for fun, in my free time, to relax. I don’t go to clubs and compete or whatever they do there.”

“Awe c’mon, girl. You don’t have to dance, just come and watch!”

Marinette slanted her eyes at Alya and turned her face suspiciously. “Why do you want to go so badly? You don’t breakdance that well.”

“Gee, thanks,” said Alya.

“You know what I mean! So spill!”

“Well…” Alya trailed off.

“C’mon.”

“I kinda met this guy who says he’s a DJ there and he kinda said he could get us past the bouncer…”

“What’s the catch?”

“No catch,” Alya said flippantly, playing with her straw, not meeting Marinette’s eyes.

“Alya…” Marinette was very concerned now.

“Literally, there is no catch, at least not for you.”

“What does that mean?” Marinette was getting panicked now.

“Three percent sure he thinks I’m cute and is just trying to impress me, but that’s it I swear.”

“You swear?”

“Yeah.” Alya crossed her heart in an attempt to persuade Marinette. “C’mon, just one night of watching other people breakdance. It’s a really exclusive club from

what I hear.”

“And you really believe this guy is really a DJ there? What if he’s lying?”

“Then we won’t get past the bouncer, I’ll owe you one, and we leave,” said Alya, shrugging. “Simple as that.”

Marinette huffed, but she could feel her resolve breaking. She loved watching break dancing almost as much as she loved doing it, and if they didn’t get in Alya would owe her.

“C’mon, just for tonight,” said Alya.

Marinette sighed. “Just for tonight.”

Alya squealed with pleasure.

“Just what is this club called anyways?” Marinette asked.

“Miraculous!” Alya answered.

* * *

Marinette and Alya both stood in line to get into Miraculous several hours later. Marinette was (as Alya put it) three percent sure that it wasn’t an actual thing and that she and Alya were just in line for some pervy show or something equally as horrifying. But she kept her mouth shut as she and Alya approached the bouncer, an older man with a clipboard.

“Next!” he shouted to the people in front of them, and they left the line unceremoniously. “Names,” he monotonously said to Alya and Marinette.

“Alya Césaire and Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” Alya said.

The Bouncer indicated the door with his arm, making both of the girls flinch. “The Bubbler is expecting you,” he said. “Next!” Marinette and Alya both went through the door as quickly as they could.

“What kind of name is ‘The Bubbler’,” asked Marinette.

“I don’t know, but that’s definitely not the name he gave me,” said Alya.

“What name did he-“ Marinette cut herself off as they entered the main part of the club. Techno music was playing as scores of young people were on the dance floor.

“Is that you’re guy?” asked Marinette, pointing to the guy at the DJs spot across the room. He wore black and green with glasses that looked like a winged insect.

“No, well, I don’t know with that costume,” said Alya.

“You ladies talking about me?” Alya and Marinette turned to the newcomer. He wore a blue, red, and yellow costume with a red hat. His face was painted blue with black paint around the edges of his eyes; a black dot below his right eye and another above his left eye.

“Uh, Nino?” asked Alya nervously.

“In the flesh, babe,” he said to Alya, bowing his head reverently. “But it’s ‘the Bubbler’ here, if you don’t mind. I’m so glad you came! You must be Marinette.” He turned to Marinette.

“Uh- yes, hello,” said Marinette.

“Or should I say ‘Princess’,” said the Bubbler, indicating Marinette’s pink and white shirt with the word ‘Princess’ printed across it

“Do we need pseudonyms too?” asked Alya.

“I don’t know about those, but you guys don’t have to have fake names if you were wondering.”

Alya and Marinette side-glanced each other, neither of them speaking.

“So, who’s DJing right now?” asked Alya, indicating the guy at the turntables.

“Oh, that’s the Gamer, he really loves his techno,” said the Bubbler. “Speaking of, I’d better head over for my set. It’s almost time for the main event. You guys are going to want to go towards the front. And feel free to get some drinks on me.” He began moving towards the raised platform for the DJ.

“Wait, will we see you after?” Alya called after him.

“Yeah, I’ll come find you,” said the Bubbler as he disappeared in the crowd.

“C’mon, I want a drink,” said Alya, and they headed to the bar.

The bartender looked like something from a conglomeration between Dragon Ball Z and a bad anime, but it was quite show as he whipped up their drinks. He charged their drinks to the Bubbler’s tab and the two girls made it over to the dance floor.

“Alright, alright, alright, ladies and gentlemen,” the Bubbler crooned into the microphone as the music died down. “It’s Friday night, which means…”

“DANCE OFF!” the crowd screamed as they began to form a circle in the middle of the dance floor. Marinette and Alya got as close to the front as they could. Marinette noticed that the crowd had not simply gathered around a random spot, but a small circular depression in the middle of the dance floor.

“As always, I’m your DJ, the magnificent Bubbler, and let’s get this party started!” the Bubbler said as the crowd started clapping in time together, preparing for the first dance off. “Tonight are one-on-one battles winner take all. Let’s see if anyone can defeat our reigning champ tonight.” Several people booed at this idea. “First up we have Dark Cupid versus the crowd favorite from last week, Timebreaker!”

Marinette was having far too much fun. She cheered when her favorites won, and booed when they didn’t. All the different dancers had costumes and odd names. The winner, Simonsayz, was doing a victory lap around the small area for dancing when the lights dimmed.

“Is he the ‘reigning champ’ then?” asked Marinette to Alya.

“I don’t know,” said Alya. “Maybe.”

Just then the crowd started chanting “Chat Noir! Chat Noir!”

“So the audience asks, so they receive,” said the Bubbler. “Give it up for reigning champ five-weeks and counting, Chat Noir!” The crowd went nuts as a hooded young man in all black with a silver staff slung over his shoulders came lumbering into the small arena. He looked up from under his hood with the wickedest grin Marinette had ever seen. The look was reflected in his bright green eyes. His hood had cat ears on it, there was black paint over his eyes as a makeshift mask, and his black shirt had a green paw on the front.

“It’s _paws_ -itively lovely seeing you again, Simon,” said Chat Noir. Everyone quieted down to hear them speak.

“Same to you, Chat,” said Simon as he straightened his top hat.

“Alright you two, time to start,” the Bubbler said as the first notes of “Bitch Better Have My Money” started playing.

The feline themed dancer let his staff drop to the ground as he started dancing. Marinette’s jaw dropped as she watched Chat Noir dance. He seemed to be in complete control of every muscle in his limbs, there was no extra movement at all.

“He’s good,” said Marinette.

“You’re better,” said Alya with a wink.

When it was Simonsayz’s turn, he was good, but still a pale comparison to Chat. Everyone cheered as Chat was declared the winner.

“For the sixth week in a row, Miraculous your winner is Chat Noir!” said the Bubbler as the crowd cheered and chanted Chat’s name. He scooped his staff off the ground with a shit-eating grin on his face. “If anyone wants to take a shot at challenging the champ, now’s the time to do it.”

The crowd dulled down to a murmur as they waited for someone to maybe volunteer. It was then that Marinette decided was a good enough time to go and get another drink. But before she could make it a step, she tripped over someone’s foot and fell face-first into the small arena.

“Oh! It looks like we have a challenger, folks!” the Bubbler said as he started looking for a good song.

“Hope you’re _feline_ lucky, Princess!” said Chat as he dropped the staff and cracked his knuckles, rolling his head in the process.

By now Marinette had stood up and was now trying to escape this hell she had tripped herself into. No one was letting her out though. The lights, the people, the humiliation, the one too many tequilas were just too much for Marinette. She fainted.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After fainting on the dance floor, Marinette is ready to prove what's she's made of to a certain chatty cat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Note to self, don't post a new fic the day before the season finale) but I'm glad I did because I got a feel for what you guys wanted. And holy crap, you guys, thank you so much for the bookmarks, comments, and kudos. I appreciate every single one  
> A guest on FFN left me a really valuable comment with terminology of different styles of street dancing, so you may notice I refer to specific styles in this chapter.  
> I have seen the new episode (no spoilers) and I gotta say that, from a creator standpoint, it's a great place to end the season. But as a consumer I just want to cry for a hundred years.  
> But this new episode has posed a conundrum in the form of Volpina. I honestly didn't plan to put her in, and so I'm now writing about 7 chapters ahead of this chapter and am not prepared to add in a major character. So comment if you want to see Volpina, just keep in mind she will probably only have a cameo or two several chapters from now (we're talking chapter 8 or later) if I do end up putting her in. Thanks.

Marinette woke up on a couch, something cool pressed to her forehead.

"Don't push yourself." Alya was dabbing the wet cloth on Marinette's forehead.

Marinette groaned. "How long was I out?" she asked.

"Ten minutes or so."

"Where are we?"

"I don't know, some room behind the bar. I think it's a sitting room for the dancers, but I'm not sure."

"How'd I get here?"

"Chat Noir carried you."

"Oh god, I fainted in front of all those people." Marinette covered her face with her hands. Her cheeks felt hot in her hands from exertion and shame.

"Hey, they weren't letting you out, and you fell into the pit by accident. Don't sweat it too much."

Marinette sat up and rubbed her eyes.

"Ready to go?" asked Alya.

Marinette nodded.

"Let's go say goodbye to Ni- the Bubbler, and then we'll go."

"No, you stay, you wanted to come."

"I am not letting you walk home by yourself at this hour, girl. No, we'll just say goodbye and leave."

They got off the couch in the small sitting room, and left through the door Alya said they entered from. There were definitely less people there than there had been before the breakdancing. The Bubbler was standing at the bar, speaking to the bartender as they approached.

"Hey, hey, it's my guests of honor!" he said exuberantly. "Did you guys have fun?"

"It was sick!" Alya exclaimed.. "Didn't you think so, Marinette?"

Marinette plastered on a smile and nodded. "I really enjoyed it."

"Marinette breakdances too." Alya wrapped her arm around her friend's shoulders.

"Alya!" protested Marinette, face growing red.

"Hey, hey, a fellow breaker, huh? Sweet." He held his fist up for Marinette to bump with her own and she obliged. "Could you believe that girl? Right after-"

Alya anticipated what he was going to say, and stepped on his foot. "Whoops, sorry Ni- Bubbler, we had a great time, talk to you later!" Alya grabbed Marinette's arm to leave.

"Wait," said Marinette, pulling back on Alya's hand. "Bubbler, what's with everyone's names?"

The Bubbler shrugged. "It's tradition here at Miraculous for the talent to have fake names. Anonymity I guess."

"Cool, it was good to meet you, Bubbler." Marinette then let Alya drag her away.

"You too Marinette, bye Alya, call me!"

Alya and Marinette waved as they left the club.

* * *

For the next week, everytime Marinette brought up what she had dubbed "The Miraculous Incident™", Alya would always shrug and say it was not a big deal. This happened until Marinette was able to at least convince herself of the same (for the most part).

Classes continued, and Marinette had a lot of staring at Adrien to catch up with. It wasn't until the Wednesday after "The Miraculous Incident™" that Marinette really felt her shame catch up with her.

It was after ballet class, and Chloe was talking to Adrien Agreste, again.

"Pity you weren't at that new club Friday, Adrien," she proclaimed.

"It's just not my scene, Chloe," said Adrien, and Marinette sighed to herself.

_It's meant to be, him and me,_  she thought.  _We both hate clubs._

"Not for the breakdancing-," Marinette's ears perked up. "But there was this girl who challenged the reigning champ and then fainted right on the dance floor." Chloe laughed as if it was the funniest thing she had ever heard, but all Marinette felt was cold fury. "You should've seen it, Adrien," Chloe bellowed as she wiped a tear from her eye.

Marinette bolted from the room, not willing to hear Adrien laugh at her shame too. She found an empty dance studio and locked it. As Marinette pressed her back to the door, she slid down it and screamed into the empty room. She screamed until she felt her voice crackle and die. All the anger and shame she felt poured over the dam she'd built.

Marinette pulled her knees to her chest, folded her arms over them, and buried her face in her arms. A few traitorous tears fell down her face. She thought her scream may have brought someone to come and see what was wrong, but no one did.

She sniffled and stood. Her reflection made her cringe once more at the memory: she was wearing the same "Princess" shirt she'd been wearing to Miraculous and hadn't even realized. But as she stood, the shame transformed into anger.

"You wanna dance?" she demanded to her reflection. "Let's dance."

She pulled out her wireless headphones and started her breakdancing playlist on her phone. Meghan Trainor's "NO" was the perfect mood setter for her pretend dance off. She danced in front of the mirror, and as she went on, she could've swore that her reflection had a black hood and green eyes.

She had always loved house dancing. She liked to think of it almost like the musical version of street dancing, though she never would've said that out loud.

The song ended and she took out her headphones as the next song started. She stared at her own reflection, her emotions had calmed down. Just as she had told Alya, breakdancing helped her relax. Despite all this, she still knew what she had to do.

Before she could register entirely what she was doing, she had disconnected her headphones and was making a call.

"Alya, is there anyways we can go back to Miraculous on Friday?"

* * *

"Are you sure about this, girl?" asked Alya, eyeing Marinette up and down.

Marinette took a shaky breath. "Little late to try and talk me out of this." They stood in line for Miraculous yet again.

"I'm not, I just- its so unlike you."

Marinette rolled her eyes, and crossed her arms. "I know what you're gonna say: I shouldn't let Chloe get to me and all that."

"No, I think you're doing to right thing."

Marinette had a sharp intake of breath. "R- really?"

"Yeah, girl! You're so much better than him anyways, and you're gonna look hot doing it." Alya eyed Marinette's outfit. Red with black polka-dotted crop-top, baggy black pants, red Converse, and red paint over her eyes in a red mask. She wore a red hoodie over her crop top as it was chilly outside.

"Thanks for the outfit," said Alya, gesturing to her own costume, a black and white mix with white paint over her own eyes. Marinette had made both of their outfits over the last few days.

"You're welcome."

"Thought about what you're going to call yourself?"

"Ladybug."

Alya smirked. "Fighting bad luck with good luck, huh?"

"Exactly."

The bouncer let them in once again, and they made their way into Miraculous. As they passed through the front, Marinette heard something like hairspray spraying and looked towards the noise. To her surprise, a boy in costume with red hair was spray painting a way. She and Alya both made her way to his side as he stepped back to look at his creation. Before them stood a spray-paint likeness of Chat Noir.

"Like?" he said. "It's only fitting that the champ be immortalized by  _moi_."

"Hmmm," Alya hummed and thought a moment, rubbing her chin. "I'm willing to bet you'll have to put a new champ up there by the end of the night."

"What? No, I-" Marinette protested.

"Deal," said the man and he and Alya shook hands and agreed on 50 Euros.

"What's your name?" Alya asked.

"They call me Le Dessinateur," said Le Dessinateur. "And you?"

"This is Ladybug, and I'm…" Alya trailed off, thinking a moment. "Lady Wifi."

"I see am in the presence of two ladies tonight, it's a pleasure to meet you both."

They left him to his work, and they went into the club.

"Alya, I think that was Nathanael!" Marinette exclaimed, barely able to contain herself.

"Either way, that tomatobaby is about to owe me 50 Euros, so you better not lose," said Alya.

"Yeah, thanks!" said Marinette, not sounding thankful at all.

"C'mon, let's go find the Bubbler."

They found him over by the turntables, waiting for his set. "Hey Alya, nice threads, who's your friend?" He was wearing the same costume as before. He didn't recognize Marinette.

"Please, it's Lady Wifi here, babe," she said in an imitation of Nino. "And this is Ladybug. She's going to challenge Chat Noir tonight."

The Bubbler's eyes went wide and he looked impressed. "Good luck, you'll need it."

"Thanks," said Marinette. "But I don't think I will."

"Ooh, I see. So Al- Lady Wifi, are you gonna dance too?"

"Maybe sometime, but not tonight," said Alya.

"So you're a breaker too?"

Alya shrugged. "I dabble, I'm not as good as Ladybug here."

"Cool, hey, we should do doubles together."

"Doubles?"

"Yeah, the second Wednesday of every month is doubles night. Friday is always one-on-one, but every month we have two-on-two."

"Does Chat Noir do doubles?" asked Marinette.

"Not always, I think he did one with Dark Cupid one time, or that might have been Copy Cat."

"Copy Cat?"

"Yeah, there was this guy who came in, looked just like him, claimed to be him, even beat a few dancers. But he was no match for the real thing. He did one with Princess Fragrance once, that I know."

"You sure that wasn't Copy Cat?" asked Alya.

"Pretty sure," said the Bubbler, rubbing the back of his neck. "We're pretty tight him and I."

"What's he like?"

He shrugged. "He's a great guy. I gotta start the set, good luck, Ladybug."

He hopped onto the platform and Marinette grabbed Alya's hand to head towards the small arena.

"Welcome back to Miraculous, ladies and gentlemen, it's Friday night, which means…"

"DANCE OFF!" Marinette and Alya screamed with the rest of the crowd as they surrounded the pit.

Marinette felt nervous energy pulse through her body, and she tapped her leg with her hand.

"Nervous?" asked Alya as the first dancers came out, Stormy Weather and the Pigeon.

Marinette nodded. "But mostly excited, I'm ready, Alya."

"Yeah you are, girl."

The dancers went on just as the week before. Stormy Weather won two, but then was defeated by the Pharaoh, who was then defeated three later by Darkblade. Darkblade prevailed and was the one to go against Chat Noir. As the lights dimmed, Alya gasped and shook Marinette's arm.

"What if Darkblade defeats Chat Noir? Then what'll you do?" she asked.

Marinette hung her head in thought, that had never occurred to her. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," she said. "He hasn't beaten Chat Noir yet."

Just like last week, Chat Noir came out as the Bubbler called him. This time he used his staff to vault himself into the pit. He landed nimbly, like a cat. The crowd "oohed" and "ached."

"We doth meet again, Chat Noir," said Darkblade.

Chat Noir smirked under his hood. "You're better than  _meow_ -st people Darkblade, but there's no way you're gonna beat me."

"What is it with him and cat puns?" Alya asked aloud.

Marinette shrugged. Now her foot had joined her hand on her in the nervous tapping. The first notes of Jason Derulo started and Chat Noir started. He was just as good as the week before, his swaggering style of krumping and style kept everyone watching. Darkblade was pretty good as well. He even faked out Chat more than once.

"He may actually beat him," whispered Marinette, a lump of nervous energy had collected in his throat to add to her jumpy limbs.

Chat huffed and came back swinging. He danced more perfectly, if that was even possible. And the crowd cheered as he froze to end.

"There you have it folks, for the seventh week in a row, the winner, and still champion, Chat Noir!" the Bubbler announced. The crowd all cheered. "But maybe we're speaking too soon," he added, and the crowd murmured in surprise. "Is there anyone willing to challenge our champ?"

A silence fell over the crowd as Marinette built up the courage in her throat. There was no place for clumsy Marinette anymore, it was time for Ladybug to shine. She took off her hoodie and thrust it into Alya's arms.

"I will!" she called, and made her way to the arena. Chat Noir looked dumbstruck as she jumped into the pit.

"Looks like we have a challenger, folks! What's your name, mademoiselle?"

"Call me Ladybug!"

Chat Noir bowed to her and even attempted to kiss her hand. "Its  _paws-_ itively  _purrrfect_ to meet you, Mlle. Ladybug."

Ladybug pulled her hand out of his and pushed Chat back by his nose. "Your flirting won't work on me,  _petite chaton_ , I'm here to dance." The crowd seemed to like this line and "ohhhed" in unison.

Chat Noir smiled that wicked grin of his again and let his staff fall to the floor. "If the lady wants to dance, who am I to stand in her way?"

"It's winner take all here at Miraculous, folks," announced the Bubbler as "It's Going Down for Real" by Djiniqo started playing.

Chat start just as he always did in his battles. This time it was a mix of popping and krumping. He ended very close to her, and smirked as he eyed her up and down. Ladybug squinted at him, and ducked under his arm. She took at as her cue to start and started dancing. She opted for more house, her go to. She was unaware of the crowd's cheers or Alya's screaming, it was only her and Chat. Chat took another turn after she was done, Ladybug could see that he was trying even harder now. She took another turn as the song ended and froze as the crowd murmured. "Who won?" they asked.

"It's too close to call folks," said the Bubbler as he slid another record on. "Time to go into overtime!" "Dirty Work" by Austin Mahone started playing and Ladybug resumed.

Chat Noir took his turn, flipping around the pit. Just as he was about to finish, the unthinkable happened. The back of his foot caught on his staff and he started to fall. The crowd shrieked as the reigning champ fell to the floor. Ladybug did a front flip to stand in front of the fallen cat. He looked up at her with an intelligible look. She held her hand out for him, and he took it. She pulled him up, and smirked at him.

"I can't believe it folks!" the Bubbler announced. "Welcome our new champ, Ladybug!"

Marinette smiled a small smile and ducked her head slightly, "Victorius" by Panic! at the Disco started playing. Chat Noir raised her arm in triumph, and she smiled at him. The first person in the Pit was Alya. She threw her arms around Marinette, shouting in her ear about how proud she was. Marinette watched as Chat Noir grabbed his staff and walked out of the pit. Victory had been sweet, but revenge had not been. She lost Chat in the crowd, and focused on Alya.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had wanted to make this chapter longer, but then we would've been treading into 4k word territory for this chapter and I would much rather stay in the 2k-3k word range.  
> I want to try to update every 2-4 days (most likely every 3) but we'll see. It's been killing me not to post this chapter because of all the positive attention you guys have been giving me, but I am determined to have a decent upload schedule this time.  
> And house music is totally Break Dancing! The Musical™ and you can't convince me otherwise.  
> If you enjoyed seeing Nath, he's going to play bigger roles in the upcoming chapters. The Evillustrator was my favorite villain, everyone else can just fight me  
> It took a lot of self control to not call Stormy Weather "Climatika" because that is such an effing awesome name, but since she's not a major character, I held off.  
> Remember to comment if you want to see Volpina, just remember she won't be a major character.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette confronts Chat about their dance battle, and Ladybug gets a little more attention than she bargained for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys are amazing, just look at those kudos, just look at 'em go. Thankyouthankyouthankyou  
> This chapter is mostly filler and build up for the next two chapters (which I'm considering consolidating into one chapter). There is a perspective change in the middle of this chapter, just a warning. If it doesn't make sense, let me know and I will try to clarify. I was just trying to experiment.  
> Other than that, please enjoy. This chapter occurs directly after the last one.

The music continued, but people started filing out. Several spectators and even breakers from earlier in the night came to congratulate Marinette on her victory. Le Dessinateur even came down sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Guess I have to take that mural down now," he said forlornly.

"No, don't," protested Marinette. "It's too nice. Maybe you should just start a mural of the winners."

"Ok, but you gotta stay champ long enough for me to finish yours."

"Speaking of winners," crooned Alya.

"Al- Wifi!"

"What? The boy made a bet, and it's time to put his money where his mouth is."

"It's my fault for betting on the wrong." Le Dessinateur counted five 10 Euro notes into Alya's open hand. Marinette's eyes fell, Chat was good, he was really good. She was starting feeling guilty about this whole thing. I mean, here she was, an outsider beating a champ. Chat had been reigning champion for five weeks before Marinette even heard of Miraculous and who knows how long it took him to get that far.

"Nice doing business with you, tomatobaby," said Alya. Le Dessinateur made a confused face, but Alya and Marinette both made their way to the bar.

The Bubbler was waiting for them. "Hey, hey, Lady Wifi wasn't kidding, you were fantastic Ladybug!" he said. "A round on me, Kung Food," he said to the bartender and everyone got their drinks. "To Ladybug, our new champion!" The Bubbler raised his glass and everyone followed along, taking a drink.

"Yeah, uh, Bubbler, about that," said Marinette.

"What is it, champ?" he asked and Marinette winced.

"I can't be the champ, I wanna give it back to Chat," she whispered.

Bubbler nearly spit his drink out, he coughed and cleared his throat. "That's not how this works, Ladybug," he whispered, setting his glass on the bar. He looked both ways before pulling her over to a more secluded part of the bar. "You beat Chat fair and square, if he wants his title back he has to earn it."

"Yeah but- he actually worked for it and I just showed up."

"Which just goes to show how much better you are."

"I won because he tripped!"

The Bubbler waved his hand like this was a trivial detail. "If he had been paying attention to where he'd put that stick to begin with, he may not have." Marinette still did not look convinced. "Look, Ladybug, I know Chat, like I said, we're tight. If you try and give his title back, he's not going to take it, he'll want to earn it."

Marinette bit her lip. "Can I at least talk to him?"

The Bubbler looked a little shocked, but then nodded. "Yeah, go wait over with Wifi, I'll go and make sure he hasn't left yet." The Bubbler left her and Marinette went back over to Alya.

"Did he talk some sense into you?" asked Alya.

"I'm going to talk to Chat," said Marinette.

"You better not try to give him his title back."

"Why not? I don't deserve it!"

"Yes you do, you won it!"

"I challenged him because of what happened last week, not because I wanted to dethrone him."

"Maybe that's why you're the perfect person to beat him, Ladybug." Alya sipped her drink. "You were in it to prove a point to nobody but yourself rather than win."

"Well, actually it was to prove a point to Chloe."

"Yeah, but she's never going to know that you're Ladybug."

Speak of the devil, the very same Chloe Bourgeois approached, squealing slightly. Marinette was about to snap at Chloe to get lost when the rich girl thrust a napkin and pen under Marinette's nose.

"Ladybug, can I have your autograph? Please!" she demanded.

Marinette was so surprised she obliged. "Wh- who should I make it out to?" she asked.

"Uh, Chloe, Chloe Bourgeois. You may know me, my father's the Mayor of Paris. I actually breakdance a little myself-" Marinette finished with her new signature, a circle with five dots cut in half with a line.

"There you go." Marinette thrust the napkin and pen back at Chloe.

"'Chloe, keep on rocking,' nice, um, is that a-"

"Ladybug," said the Bubbler, and he nodded for her to come with him.

"Uh, it was nice to meet you, Chloe," Marinette said as she followed the Bubbler.

"Nice to meet you too, Ladybug, I'll call you!"

Marinette cringed as she followed the Bubbler into a locker room in the back.

"Before you go and talk to Chat, I want to show you where to come in next week-"

"Ne- next week?" asked Marinette.

"Well, yeah, you're champ now, did you think you wouldn't have to defend your title? Anyway," the Bubbler showed her a door that lead into the alley next to Miraculous. Another bouncer stood at the door, and nodded at the Bubbler. "This is between us and the restaurant next door. Here's your ID," the Bubbler handed her a badge with her name on it. "Just give it to the Gorilla here, and he will let you in."

"What time should I be here?" Marinette asked.

"Probably about 11:30. Anyway, Chat should be around here somewhere."

"Someone call my name?" Chat said as he rounded the corner, leaning against the lockers.

"I'll leave you guys, talk to you later, Chat," said the Bubbler as he left.

"Bye, bye, Bubbles," said Chat.

Marinette stood there stupidly as Chat eyed her up and down. "Step into my office, Ladybug," he finally said and Marinette followed him over to where his locker was.

"What is you wanted to talk with me about?" he asked as he packed up his costume. Though he still had on his hood with cat ears and black paint over his eyes.

"Look, what happened tonight, I'm sorry."

Chat stopped and looked at her for a second before bursting out laughing. "You have  _cat_  to be  _kitten_  me right  _meow_ ," he said as he leaned against the locker doors. "Sorry for what?" He wiped a tear out of his eye.

Marinette's face burned in shame. "You didn't deserve to be beaten by me!"

Chat shrugged. "It was bound to happen sometime." He paused to sit on the bench. "I'm glad it was by someone as lovely as you." He again took her hand and tried to kiss it, and again Marinette again pushed him back by the bridge of his nose.

"So you're just going to take it?" asked Marinette.

"What would you rather I do, Ladybug? Swear revenge?" Marinette flinched, that was essentially what she had done. "Nah, I'm tired of being champ, of having to be on my A-game every single Friday, I do have a life outside of Miraculous. Though, I must say it has gotten much duller by comparison since you showed up."

Marinette rolled her eyes. She was sure he flirted like that with all the girls he met.

"Will you be back next week?" she asked.

Chat smiled a much less wicked smile. "If I didn't know better, I'd say my lady is going to miss me."

"I'm not 'your lady,' or anybody's."

"We'll see about that in the future." Chat winked at her and stood up. "Yeah, I'll be back next week, and I'll dance. But it won't be nearly as much pressure. I'll probably lose, but I don't care much, you know?" He sighed and brushed the hair out of his eyes. "You were really good, Ladybug, I've been dancing all my life, but you- you have the talent you know? You're really good."

Marinette blinked and then smiled. "Thanks, Chat, that means a lot to me."

"I'll see you next week, Ladybug," he called, heading towards the door.

"Bye, Chat," Marinette said.

"Wait, wait, before I forget." Chat turned back towards Marinette. "You know we have doubles night here, once a month."

"Yeah, Bubbler told me." Her heart beat wildly with excitement. If he was asking what she thought he was asking…

"If we teamed up, whew, I have a  _feline_  no one would be able to stop us."

"Is that an invitation?" Marinette ignored the pun.

"It is, do you accept?"

Marinette pursed her lips as she thought. She had never break danced with partner before.

"Well, you don't have to give me an answer tonight. I'll see you later, Bugaboo!" He called as he raced out the door.

Marinette scoffed and left the locker room. She went to the bar where the Bubbler and Alya were standing and talking.

"Ready to go?" asked Alya.

"Awe, stay, it's not that late," said the Bubbler.

"Nah, I'm tired." Marinette yawned to illustrate her point.

"All that dancing wore you out?" asked Alya. Marinette smirked and nodded.

"How'd that go?" asked the Bubbler, indicating the way of the locker room.

Marinette nodded. "Really well."

"Oooh," teased Alya. "Are those words of adoration I hear?"

Marinette lightly punched Alya in the arm. "No, but we might be doing doubles together."

The Bubbler gasped. "That. Would. Be. Awesome!" he exclaimed. "I can see it now, champ and former champ taking on the world together to become: the Ultimate Champ."

It was Alya's turn to hit the Bubbler in the arm. "Whoa, calm down, Ladybug said 'might,' as in it's not official yet."

The Bubbler rubbed his arm and pouted. He then took Alya's hand. "If Ladybug will be coming every Friday, will you come see her?"

Alya pretended to think it over. Marinette smirked and shook her head. They were flirting.

"I might, she probably won't have all that much time to spend with me, what will I do before the dance off."

"You can hang out with me!"

Alya leaned over and kissed his cheek. "Sounds like a plan, I'll see you next week." She led Marinette out.

"Bye Bubbler," called Marinette back. Alya always seemed to be dragging Marinette out. "Thanks for everything."

"No problem," Bubbler called back.

* * *

Marinette hit the snooze the next Monday and groaned. She had helped her parents out in the bakery all Saturday and Sunday and now it was time to go back to real life. The cherry on top of the entire weekend had been on Sunday when Alya had emailed her a link. She went to the website, and her jaw dropped. The pink and yellow explosion of a website was all just too much for Marinette.

"You dedicated a blog about me?" Marinette said after she called Alya.

"Yeah, isn't sick?"

"Alya, it hasn't even been two days!"

"So? In those two days you became the best breakdancer at Miraculous! I'm ahead of the curve, this blog will chronicle your career! Thousands of years from now internet anthropologists will find it and understand your trials!"

"Internet anthropologists?" Marinette repeated.

"It's going to be a thing, girl, just you watch. Well…except that we'll most definitely by dead by the time they are a thing."

"This conversations just one train wreck after another."

"Did you watch the video?"

"What video?"

"The video of your battle with Chat Noir!"

"You filmed it?!"

"Of course I did, I thought that's why you brought me?"

"I brought you because you're my best friend, Alya."

"Awe, thanks, girl. So really, what do you think of the site?"

Marinette started looking around the websites. "It's a nice site, all the links work and the video is really nice quality."

"Thanks, I spent all yesterday working on it."

"You even have a blog post up already?"

"Well yeah, it is a blog. And anyway I figured I had to chronicle the beginning of Ladybug."

"Alya!"

"What?"

"What's up with this biography?"

"What's wrong with it?"

"I did not grow up in the slums of Paris!"

"I know, but it sounds romantic."

"I did not learn dancing from Buddhist Monks!"

"Ladybug's a personality, Marinette. She can be anything."

Marinette sighed. "She's me, Alya. She's the version of me I could only be behind a mask."

Alya was quiet for a moment. "I'm sorry, Marinette, I was just trying to do something nice. I didn't mean to- I can take the site down."

"No! Don't do that, the site is great, leave it up."

"I feel so bad now."

"Don't be, its fine."

"I'll take the Buddhist Monk part out of the biography."

"I don't want a biography up, Alya, that's the only thing I don't like."

"Then what can I say about who y- Ladybug is?"

"Just say I'm an unknown, came out of nowhere or whatever, you're better at writing than me."

"Done, and done, girl."

As Monday morning went on, Marinette tried to focus on her classes, but her mind kept wandering to the clothes in her bag. Alya had asked her if they could shoot a video of Ladybug dancing at the academy for the Ladyblog. Of all the things to call the new website, that was what Alya had picked "Ladyblog." Marinette couldn't get over the fact that, when Alya was namingg the website, she thought to herself "Ladyblog? Yes." and did it.

Regardless, Marinette had reserved one of the dance rooms for practice and they were going to shoot after her ballet class.

As said class was wrapping up, Chloe was yet again trying to draw a lot of attention to herself. Marinette realized that, of all her classes, this class was the one in which most of the drama happened, but that was mostly due to the fact that it was her only class with Chloe.

"We should definitely start a breakdancing troop here at the Academy!" she was saying to her ring of onlookers.

"That's a great idea Chloe!" said one guy.

"We could all have costumes and stuff," said a girl.

"I'll go to Principle Damocles today and make the requests, sign ups for auditions will be posted tomorrow."

"Whoa, whoa, auditions?" Everybody seemed to not like this idea at all.

"Why not just do a few meet ups to gauge interest, Chloe?" asked Adrien. "Then you could see them all dance without the pressure of auditions."

Chloe seemed to like this idea. Marinette shook her head as she left the ballet classroom. She definitely should've seen this coming. Chloe like to start things and take credit for them, even if they weren't an original idea. Of course if she went to Miraculous and saw how the people went nuts over personalities like Chat Noir and Ladybug she would want all that attention for herself. Was there nothing in this city left untarnished by Chloe?

Alya met Marinette in their practice room as the latter was slathering on the red paint over her eyes.

"Looking good, girl," Alya commented, eyeing Marinette's costume. Alya herself was wearing her Lady Wifi costume Marinette had made.

"Why are you wearing that? Are you going to dance with me?" asked Marinette.

"No, silly, this video is of you. This is just incase I accidentally film myself in the mirror people won't know who I am."

"That's fair," said Marinette.

Alya set up her camera and tripod as Marinette set up her speakers with her song.

"Alright, ready whenever you are, girl," said Alya.

* * *

The title of the video read: "The Miraculous Ladybug Break Dancing".

"Is it recording?" the girl on camera spoke.

"Sure is," said a voice behind the camera.

"You'll edit this part out, right?"

"Totally."

Jump-cut. The girl is looking for a song on her phone.

"Ah hell, I just had the song this morning," she said.

"Take your time."

Jump-cut.

"Ok, I got it. Here, you start it." The girl on camera handed the phone to the person behind the camera.

"Kay."

Jump-cut. The girl is standing in the middle of the dance studio. "Cake By The Ocean" by DNCE started playing overtop the video, the girl started dancing. The camera followed her every movement as she made. She jumped and spun on the floor, an expression of pure determined bliss on her face the whole time. The song ended and the girl waved goodbye at the camera.

"That was sick, girl," said the girl behind the camera.

"Heh, thanks."

* * *

"Wait, wait, how many views has the video gotten?" asked Marinette. Alya had called her again.

"Two million in the past three days," said Alya. "Girl, you're viral. You're trending on YouTube right now."

"Really?"

"Yeah, go look."

Marinette went to the site and clicked on "Trending." Sure enough her video was the sixth down.

"You got bumped, you used to be third. You're losing popularity! How quickly the mighty fall!"

"Haha," said Marinette, unimpressed.

"But anyway, its really great, I've gotten nearly a million hits on the Ladyblog so far, life is good."

"For you anyways, you've finally found your story."

"I have, haven't I? No more sniffing oil paints for Alya Césaire! For once I have the one up on everyone else!"

"I'm happy for you."

"And, best part, it's my best friend, its you."

"Thanks Alya."

"So are you going to join the Academy's breakdancing troop?"

Marinette grunted. "Don't you mean Chloe's?"

"Yeah, but if you joined you could overthrow her."

"I don't know, Alya. I really prefer breakdancing as a hobby, I love designing the costumes more. I'm only doing the Miraculous thing because I'm-"

"The best goddamn dancer they have!" Alya finished for her.

"…yeah, anyway, my break dancing dream is fulfilled by Miraculous, and Chat asked to do doubles with me. A girl can only be spread too thin."

"Yeah, but I'll do it with you."

"You'd do it? You'd join Chloe's troop? You hate Chloe!"

"Yeah, but you're starting to get me more interested in break dancing again, and the Academy's troop is gonna be low-key at least for a while."

"I don't know, Alya-"

"I heard Adrien might be joining," Alya cajoled.

"Wha- what? Really?" Marinette's tune immediately changed.

"Yeah, he was talking to Nino about it."

"He knows Nino?"

"Yeah."

"Nino 'the Bubbler', that Nino?"

"Yeah, apparently they've known each other for a while."

Marinette was silent for a second.

"Marinette? You still there?"

"…when's the first rehearsal?" Marinette replied. She could almost hear Alya's smile over the phone.

"Saturday."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a method to the madness, I promise.   
> For the most part, people are saying I shouldn't put Volpina in, which I am more inclined to do at this point. There is a spot that I could mention her, but I hate to waste a character. You know what they say, "Don't put a gun on the wall in Act 1 unless you're going to use it by Act 3."   
> Anyway, thanks so much for all the support guys, and go check out the other break dance AUs that are on here, FFN, and tumblr, there are some really great ones that I've read if anyone wants some suggestions.  
> And I get most of my inspiration from the break dance au tag on tumblr, there's some great fan art there, and I really suggest you guys check that out. Thanks so much


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Marinette discovers Doubles Night is a bit closer than she'd anticipated, Alya drops a bombshell (as far as Marinette is concerned), and Adrien should probably keep his shirt on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the comments, bookmarks, and kudos everyone. It's been really amazing seeing what you guys have to say about the chapters. This chapter is a bit longer because there really wasn't a good stopping point. I'm not too happy about where I did stop anyway, but I didn't want to tread into 6k word territory, that's where I cross the line. Nathanael returns in this chapter! Always my favorite, and i hope you enjoy him too.

Marinette was shaking again as she and Alya both stood outside Miraculous for the third time in as many weeks.

"I wish I could go with you," said Alya.

"Me too." Marinette swallowed the lump in her throat.

"Go get 'em, I'll be cheering for you. And recording the whole time."

"Thanks, Lady Wifi." Marinette had added the wifi symbol to the front of Alya's shirt as well as a belt with a power button turned upside down.

Marinette squared her shoulders and headed down the alleyway. The Gorilla took her ID, swiped it, and the door unlocked. She took her ID back, and strode into the locker room. Everyone looked up as she entered, conversations ceased as Marinette scanned the room for an empty spot.

"Ladybug!" Chat Noir had jumped onto the bench in front of his locker to call out to her. "There's a free locker next to mine, come over here."

Marinette made her way over to the black clad dancer, and the dancers went back to their chatting.

"Sorry, this crowd can get kind of competitive," said Chat as Marinette set her duffle bag and hoodie inside the locker.

"It's not your fault."

He whistled. "My memory doesn't do you justice, Bugaboo."

"Where did that even come from?"

"I don't know, I just can't control myself around you. One could say I  _fell_ for you."

"Ha, I get it, because you fell over your own staff, very original."

"Thank you." Chat stretched, and yawned slightly. Marinette rolled her eyes as she realized he was showing off.

"Did you think about my offer?" Chat asked.

"I did."

"And…?"

"I don't see why not."

"Yes!" Chat whooped. "We're gonna kill out there. I knew you liked me back."

Marinette just smirked and patted the top of Chat's head. "Whatever helps you sleep at night, Chat."

"Chat Noir, you're up next," shouted one of the club's staff from the front of the locker room.

"Keep your paws on, I'm coming," said Chat as he got up.

"Wait." Marinette grabbed his arm, then rolled her eyes when Chat flexed his muscles.

"Yes, my lady?"

"When am I supposed to go on?"

"They'll call you, don't worry. Just go out there and kill tonight."

"What if it's you I'm facing?"

"Then you'd better watch out, Bugaboo, 'cause I'll be coming for you." Chat grinned and winked at her.

"Good luck, Chat," said the staff member.

"Thanks man," said Chat as he left the room.

Slowly the locker room emptied until Marinette was the only one left. This could only mean one thing: she was up next. She looked at herself in the mirror above the sinks, willing herself to believe she was a champion.

"Ladybug is who you are when no one's watching," she told herself. "Go out there and show them what you're made of."

"Ladybug!" called out the staff member.

"Yes?" Marinette answered stupidly.

"It's time."

She took a breath and looked at herself one more time. "You can do it."

She followed the staff member out into the main part of the club, just as the Bubbler was starting to announce her. Marinette was surprised at the crowd, it seemed to be nearly twice the size as it had been the week before.

"Alright Miraculous, the moment you've all been waiting for. Here to defend her title of break dancing champion is the one and only: Ladybug!" the Bubbler announced.

"Ladybug! Ladybug!" the crowd chanted.

Ladybug felt completely at ease as she marched into the pit. She did a double take as she realized that her opponent was none other than Chat Noir. He smirked at her from under his hoodie, and Ladybug wondered if she would ever be in this pit with anyone else except him.

"Were you expecting me, my lady?" Chat asked as he bowed deeply for her.

Ladybug cocked her hip and crossed her arms over her chest. "Not as much as you should expect an ass kicking, Chat."

"Ooh, my lady is  _feline frisky_ tonight." Chat rested his staff across his shoulders.

"Time to get this party started, Miraculous," announced the Bubbler as "Bounce" by Iggy Azalea started playing

"Ladies first," offered Chat with a flourish of his hand, and that was all Ladybug needed.

She had never heard the song before, but went with the beat as best she could. Chat had heard the song, but Ladybug noticed his dancing was slightly different from the past weeks she'd seen him. Though he was still in control of his muscles, he wasn't as rigid. He seemed to be much more…playful perhaps?

The craziest part happened when she was finishing her last turn. Chat started dancing with her instead of against her. She did her best to turn to face him, but he was versatile and kept up his game. The song ended and they froze in a pose together.

The crowd murmured, unsure of what this was supposed to be. A couple people booed for good measure.

"Uh, Chat Noir, this was supposed to be a dance BATTLE not a dance NUMBER," announced the Bubbler and the crowd murmured in the affirmative. "As Chat didn't follow the rules of the dance, this round of Dance Off goes to Ladybug for the second week in a row!" The crowd cheered. "Speaking of doubles, this Wednesday is Doubles Night at Miraculous. Come and see the teams compete for Ultimate Champion!"

The crowd murmured and dispersed as a new DJ came in for the Bubbler and the regular mosh pit dancing resumed. Chat grabbed Marinette's hand and pulled her off the dance floor.

"What was that Chat? We were supposed to be competing!" Marinette demanded.

"I'm sorry, my lady, I just couldn't bring myself to fight with you anymore." Chat smirked as he spoke. "And I wanted you to see what we could do in the doubles tournament."

"You could've said it was this Wednesday!"

"Would you have agreed with so little time?"

"I would've agreed last week to give us more time!"

Chat blinked in surprise. "Oh…ok, well. Um, we have five days to practice. When are you free?"

"Everyday," replied Marinette, then stopped herself. "Well, except for tomorrow in the morning, but I can meet tomorrow afternoon."

"Great, we'll start tomorrow afternoon, meet me in front of Miraculous."

"We'll never be able to practice enough in time!"

"I'd say we did something pawsitively fantastic just now, and we didn't even try."

"You tried, I didn't."

"So just think how good we'll be if we're both trying."

Marinette huffed, then looked around absentmindedly for Alya. An awkward silence fell between them.

"I saw your video on the internet, the one with you dancing to 'Cake By The Ocean.' It was amazing, you looked so natural."

Marinette ducked her head to blush. "Thanks, Chat. I had fun shooting it."

"Nice blog by the way."

"Hmm, oh, the Ladyblog, I don't run it."

"Huh, either way it's nice."

"It is, it is."

Chat shouldered his staff and brushed his hair out of his eyes. "Well, I would love to stay and  _chat_ , my lady. But I must go and rest for our date tomorrow."

"Its a rehearsal, not a date."

"Meh, tomayto, tomahto," said Chat. He grabbed Marinette's hand and pressed her knuckles to his lips. "Until tomorrow, my lady." He walked back in the direction of the locker rooms.

"Wait, what time are we meeting?" Marinette called after him.

"3 o'clock," Chat called over his shoulder.

Marinette rolled her eyes.

"Hey," said Alya as she looped her arm through Marinette's "How's it going?"

"Fine."

"You were really good, I don't know what his problem is." Alya indicated Chat.

"He's just joking around…I think."

"You still gonna do doubles with him?"

"Yeah."

"You know it's on Wednesday, right?"

"Yeah. We're practicing tomorrow."

"We have the Academy troop tomorrow, dummy."

"Tomorrow  _morning,_ but Chat and I are meeting in the afternoon."

"Ahhhh," said Alya. "I see what you're playing."

"What are you talking about?" Marinette wasn't sure she wanted to know.

"Adrien in the morning, Chat Noir in the afternoon, my, my Marinette, you sly dog."

"Shut up, it's not like that."

"But you wish it was for the former."

"Well…yeah…but definitely not about the latter."

Alya shrugged. "Wanna go home, champ?"

"Yeah, lemme just grab my bag from the back."

Marinette untangled her arm from Alya's and made her way to the locker room in the back. A man dressed all in black with spiky black hair nearly ran into her as she rounded the corner into the locker room.

"Ah, Ladybug, glad I caught you," he said. "He's your check from last week and for this week, congratulations." He started out the door before Marinette could say anything.

"Ch- check?" Marinette called after him, holding the envelopes in her hand.

"Yeah, the 500 Euro reward," said one of the dancers. Marinette turned to see it was Timebreaker. "You did't know about the reward?"

"No, I didn't."

"Then what'd you challenge Chat for?"

Marinette's whole face turned red. She wasn't about to admit she was the girl who fainted in the pit three weeks ago. "I- I just wanted to dance."

"Well, now you have double incentive," Timebreaker fumed as she got up to leave. On her way out she knocked one Marinette's shoulders with her own.

"Don't let Timebreaker get to you," said Reflekta after Timebreaker left. "She's been gunning for top spot since she started."

"And you're so much better than her," added Princess Fragrance.

"Uh, thanks, you two, it means a lot." Marinette was slightly sheepish. "Will I see you next week?"

They both promised the affirmative and Marinette promised to see them as well. She grabbed her bag and hoodie, and left to meet back up with Alya.

"Took you long enough." Alya was now sitting at the bar with the Bubbler.

"Did you know there was a 500 Euro reward for winning the Dance Off?" Marinette asked.

Judging by the rate at which Alya's jaw hit the floor, Marinette assumed her best friend did not know.

"500…Euros?" she choked out.

"Yeah, you guys didn't know?" the Bubbler asked.

They both turned on him. "No," they said in unison.

"So why are you so mad about me betting 50 Euros on you last week if you made 10 times that?" Alya asked Marinette.

"I didn't want you losing your money on a stupid bet!" said Marinette.

"Well that 'stupid bet' paid off, I got myself a new computer case to replace the one Chloe scratched."

"How'd that happen?" the Bubbler asked with a curled lip.

"Long story. I'll tell you when you're older."

"Well, I'm older now, tell me," the Bubbler said after a pause.

Alya punched him in the shoulder. "You got than one from Chat Noir, didn't you?"

The Bubbler shrugged. "I may have."

"You don't have to leave if you don't want to, Alya," Marinette interrupted their banter.

"No, we got rehearsal in the morning," said Alya sadly.

"And I'll see you on Sunday for our rehearsal, too?" asked the Bubbler.

"You can bet on it."

"What?" asked Marinette.

"We are also doing doubles on Wednesday," said Alya. "So you and Chat Noir had better watch out."

"Whoa, you two are doing doubles on Wednesday for sure?" The Bubbler looked positively giddy.

Marinette nodded. "We don't have much time to rehearse, so I can't say how great it'll be, but we'll be there."

"Awesome, bro. I'll tell Le Dessinateur!"

"Why him?" asked Alya.

"He promotes Miraculous through his street art."

"Do you know if he's finished Ladybug's mural?"

The Bubbler shrugged. "You'd have to ask him."

"Alright, we will, c'mon, Ladybug, we got a long day ahead of us tomorrow." Alya stood, but was held back by the Bubbler. He stood and kissed her cheek lightly.

"I'll see you on Sunday, Lady," he said.

Ally's face was pure red as she and Marinette left the club.

"Ooh, you guys are so cute," Marinette teased.

"Shut up," said Alya.

"Do you like him?"

Alya smiled and nodded. "See? Aren't you glad I dragged you to here? You got paid 1000 Euros, well assuming you got paid for last week-"

"I did."

"And I got to know Nino a little better. It all turned out for the better."

They exited Miraculous and started on their way to Marinette's house.

"Did you see how many people were there? It was crazy," said Alya.

"Yeah, I wonder why so many?" Marinette asked.

Alya gasped. "It must've been the video!"

Marinette nodded. "That makes sense, it was trending on YouTube."

Alya whipped out her phone and looked at the app again. "It still is," she said, showing Marinette the phone.

"That's gotta be some kind of record, what has it been, five days?" said Marinette.

"Well, it didn't start trending until Adrien tweeted it on Tuesday."

"Wait!" Marinette's hand flew out and grabbed Alya's shirt. "Adrien saw the video!"

Alya nodded. "Yeah, and tweeted it out to all his followers."

Marinette paled considerably. Adrien Agreste was the son of Gabriel Agreste, one of the most famous dancers in Europe, and Marinette's favorite male dancer. If Adrien had seen the video then he may have shown it to his father. Or worse, what if he recognized Marinette?

"Marinette! You're hyperventilating!" said Alya. Indeed Marinette had started breathed very heavily. "Calm down."

"What if he recognizes me?!" Marinette spat out.

"He can't have."

Marinette felt very hot. "How do you know?"

"He definitely would've said something, don't you think?"

"He might not have!"

"He's Adrien Agreste, why would he lie about knowing who you are?"

"How did he even find the video?"

"He's following me on Twitter, and I had tweeted it."

"He's following you on Twitter?!"

"You really need to stop repeating what I'm saying, and yes, he's following a lot of Academy people. If you got a Twitter, he would probably follow you."

"Can you make me one?"

Alya laughed. "I will if you let go of my shirt and we can go home."

Marinette let go, and they started walking again. "I'm sorry, I just-"

"Are in love with Adrien Agreste and don't know how to control you emotions?"

"Right, and don't say that out loud?"

"Why not? Are the alley cats going to tell him?"

"You never know."

Alya yawned and stretched. "Hey, can I crash at your place tonight? I'm bushed."

"Sure, we just can't wake my parents."

"Girl, you are twenty years old, when are you going to move out of your parents house?"

"When the world ceases to be so expensive. And I thought you loved the bakery!"

"I do, but not enough to live there. And you'll be rolling in dough in no time, Marinette. You just got paid 1000 Euros."

"That's not a reliable source of income."

"Your parents pay you for your help at the bakery right?"

"Yeah, but I only really work weekends."

"Maybe you should start considering moving out at least. You can still work at the bakery."

The two of them were silent the rest of the way to the the Dupain-Cheng's. Marinette turned the night over in her head as she changed and washed the paint off her face. The two 500 Euro checks were burning a hole in the bottom of her bag. Maybe she would look into getting an apartment on Sunday.

* * *

Alya and Marinette made their way to the Academy the next morning. Chloe had booked one of the largest studios for the first break dancing rehearsal. There were several people already there when Marinette and Alya showed up.

"What are you two doing here?" Chloe snapped at them.

"I'm sorry, I thought it said 'all dancers welcome' on your flyer," said Alya, holding up one of the flyers Chloe had posted around school as proof.

Chloe's face turned red.

"If you kick them out, I'm going with them," said Alix, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Me too," said Juleka.

"A- and me," said Mylene.

"Same here," said Ivan.

Marinette didn't even know that half these people could break dance. And here they were showing their support for herself and Alya.

Chloe huffed. "Alright everybody, thank you all for coming, we'll get started in a few minutes-"

The door burst open and Adrien rushed inside. Marinetti's heart stopped as he brushed by her to put his bag on.

"Sorry I'm late!" he called as he frantically opened his bag to put his hoodie in.

Marinette could barely stop herself from laying a hand on his shoulder. He flinched and looked up at her.

"What is it, Marinette?" he asked.

His eyes were so green, and his hair looked like angels themselves tousled it. "Uh, uh, we haven't started yet, you don't have to- to rush."

"Don't worry about it Adrien," said Chloe, pushing Marinette out of the way. "I'm not mad, it's just the first rehearsal, and we still have three months until the competition."

Everyone spoke up in unison. The collective jist was: "What competition?!"

"Everyone quiet down!" Sabrina yelled, and everyone's mouths closed. "Chloe, go ahead."

"My father has called for a competition here in Paris of any and all breakdancing troops to come and compete for a 75,000 Euro reward," Chloe crowed, clearly very proud of herself.

Everyone oohed and awed.

"If we win, we should donate the reward to the Academy," said Adrien.

"But why would we-" started Chloe, but she was drowned out by the collective agreement by everyone else in the room.

"Fine, fine, we can donate it to the Academy," said Chloe. "And then maybe they can finally afford pretty ballet costumes instead of those drab ones they have right now." Everyone rolled their eyes at this. "Let's get started. Today we're just going to be playing music and letting you dance yourself. Sabrina and I will be watching to determine if you'll be in the troop or not."

"Hey, that's not fair, at least pick one more person to judge us!" said Kim.

Chloe thought a moment. "Alright, Sabrina, Adrien," She wrapped her arm around Adrien's shoulders. "And I will all be watching you."

Adrien rubbed the back of his head and moved out of Chloe's grasp.

"Sabrina, start the music. Remember everyone, we'll be watching."

Sabrina started the music and "Same Old Love" by Selena Gomez started playing. Everyone started dancing.

"I didn't know you break dance, Marinette," Adrien said. Chloe had moved on to dance in front of the mirror.

Marinette's face turned red and she looked at the floor. "Uh, uh, y- I well-"

"She's really new," piped up Alya. "Why don't you show her some moves, Adrien?"

"Uh, sure, why not?" Adrien said.

"Have fun," Alya whispered in her ear as she moved away.

"Here just try a few simple moves." As Adrien took her through the motions of a few dances, Marinette felt her face growing hotter and hotter.

"See, you're a natural," he said.

"Th- thanks!" she spluttered.

"Adrien, come on!" Chloe pulled on his arm. "You're supposed to be watching the rest of us as well."

Marinette and Chloe made faces at one another as the latter dragged Chloe away. Alya came back to stand next to Marinette.

"You guys are really cute," she said.

"He really is, isn't he?" Marinette said dreamily.

Alya laughed as "Just A Dream" by Nelly started playing. "C'mon, show me how to bust a move like they do in Miraculous."

"Shhhh!" Marinette clamped her hand over Alya's mouth. "I don't want anyone knowing I'm Ladybug. Please."

Alya, with Marinette's hand still over her mouth, pointed towards the opposite end of the room. Marinette looked and paled visibly. Adrien was showing Kim how to do an airflare. Marinette took her hands off Alya's mouth to cover her own.

"Show me how to do that one move from Friday," said Alya.

"Wh- which move?" Marinette had not taking her eyes off Kim and Adrien.

"The one where you're on one hand and your body is like in a right angle."

"Pike?"

"Sure."

"Put your right arm on the ground."

Alya followed along with Marinette as the latter danced. They had finished and were now holding their pose when Marinette glanced up at Adrien again. He and Kim were now shaking hands. Adrien lifted the bottom of his shirt up to wipe the sweat off his forehead. Marinette lost her balance as Adrien's stomach and abs were illuminated by the fluorescent lights of the room. She hit the floor with a thud, making everyone look over.

"Hey, nice pike, Alya," called Adrien over to Alya, who was still holding her position.

Alya smiled widely and got back on her feet. "Thanks, I try," she said, brushing off her shirt. After they looked away, Alya picked Marinette up off the ground. "Smooth moves."

Marinette sighed.

"If you want to be a part of the troop, you can't freak out every time Adrien does anything."

"I know, I know."

"Just pretend he's Chat Noir, then it won't be so overwhelming to you."

"Chat Noir? He's not even half as good as Adrien," said Marinette, laughing.

"Regardless. Show me some other moves."

The rest of the rehearsal went well. Chloe spend most of her time checking out her moves in the mirror rather than actually watching everyone, and Sabrina spent most of her time watching Chloe. Adrien did his best to watch everyone dance, and looked rather pleased when it was over.

"I think you'll get in, Marinette," he told her as they were packing up to leave.

"Uh, uh I don't- maybe, I'm not that good though," said Marinette.

Adrien smiled at her. "You show real potential. We'll break you out of your shell in no time." He waved at her as he left the room, Chloe trailing after him. Marinette sighed as she stared after Adrien.

"Do you think Adrien's break dancing name would be 'Swagreste'?" Alya pondered aloud.

Marinette could barely hold back a laugh. "Wh- where did that come from?"

"I don't know, I just thought of it."

"What about me?" asked Marinette.

"Hmmmm, Hellanette."

"What? Alya, no!"

"Alya yes! It's sick, girl!"

"Ok, and what about you?"

"Hmm, I'll have to think about that one."

They left the Academy and headed to their usual coffee shop.

"When do you have to meet Chat?" asked Alya.

"3, we've got time."

They approached the counter. Nathanael was once again the barista.

"Wh- what can I get you?" he stuttered, eyes flicking from Marinette and his register. Marinette thought he looked vastly different from his Miraculous counterpart, but it was definitely him that had spray painted Chat's mural.

"Hey, Nath," said Alya. "When are you going to be done with Ladybug's mural?"

Both Marinette and Nathanael doubled back at Alya's forward question.

"Wh- what makes you think?" asked Nathanael.

"Look, we know you're Le Dessinateur, and-"

"Shhhh!" whispered Nathanael. "Not so loud."

"What? Are you not allowed to talk about your art?"

"It's not that, I just- I'm at work right now."

Alya nodded. "Sorry, I just don't see you at the Academy much."

"It- it's fine. Ma- Marinette, did you know too?"

Marinette nodded. "Yeah, you're Chat mural was beautiful. I hear you promote Miraculous through your art too."

"I- I do."

"Yeah, where do you do that?" asked Alya.

"Um…" Nathanael grabbed a napkin and started writing an address on it. "This is where the most recent is up." He slid the napkin over to Alya. "I was going to make more tonight."

"Keeping busy, I see," said Alya, sliding the napkin into her pocket.

"Y- yeah, well, Doubles Night is on Wednesday, and the owners want everyone in Paris to know that Chat Noir and Ladybug are teaming up."

"So Miraculous has owners?" Marinette asked.

"Ye- yeah, they're great. Pay me well for my art."

"Do you-"

"Hey, chit chat on your own time!" said the person behind them.

"Sorry," exclaimed the two girls. They ordered their usuals and sat down.

"I've got to change before I meet Chat so I will need to head over to the bakery in a bit," said Marinette as she sipped her drink.

"Alright, I'm going to head over to where Nath put up his promotion for the Ladyblog."

Marinette shook her head. "You're obsessed."

Alya shrugged. "It's a hobby, 'idle hands do the Devil's work' and all that."

The two friends parted ways after they finished their drinks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chat and Ladybug's battle in this chapter seems off to me, but I can't put my finger on it. I dunno, I got through what I wanted to. Doubles Night will be in a few chapters.   
> So far my favorite part was when Marinette falls over, and Adrien looks over to see Alya piking. I literally did not even mean for it to happen, it just kinda did. And i love it.  
> thanks again everyone


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The irony of their relationship is what defines them. What Chat Noir gives, Ladybug takes; what Marinette gives, Adrien takes. The all-too-perfect yin and yang.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter ended up being shorter what with how I had to cut them. Sorry but it had to be this way. Thanks again and a million times more for all the support.

Marinette went back home, changed, grabbed a sandwich, and headed off to Miraculous. She had opted to keep the same outfit from Miraculous and paint over her eyes, just to be safe. She didn't want Chat knowing who she was. Other than the three times they had met at Miraculous, he was a stranger to her. She zipped up her red hoodie and threw the hood over her head, keeping her eyes low.

She didn't meet anyone on the way to Miraculous. The building looked quite different in the daylight. It was a large black building with a pink neon sign saying "MIRACULOUS." Now the black looked like dark grey, and the sign only looked white. She had arrived before Chat did, and stood in front of the building, waiting for her partner. She kicked at a stone that was on the sidewalk. As she tried another kick, the rock slipped under her shoe and she lost her balance for the second time that day.

A pair of arms wrapped around her middle, and pulled her back to her feet. "Falling for me already, my lady?" Chat Noir mewled, sounding very pleased with himself.

"Were you watching me?" Marinette asked.

"I would never do that, my lady," he said, but the mirth in his eyes said otherwise. He too was wearing his signature hood and black paint over his eyes.

"So you just happened to be close enough to catch me at the exact moment I fell?"

"That's my story and I'm sticking to it."

"Chat?"

"Yes, my lady?"

"You can let go now."

"If you say so." Chat let go and Marinette took a step back to put space in between them.

"Where are we going to practice?" asked Marinette.

"I worked it out with the owners so we could practice here until 5 everyday. Does that work for you?"

"I mean, yeah. But how'd you 'work it out'?"

Chat shrugged. "I just asked." He produced a set of keys and unlocked the front door, opening it for Marinette. He gestured for her to go first, and she obliged.

Just like the outside of Miraculous, the inside looked different in the daylight. The lighting was different, and seemed much colder without tons of bodies inside. Chat ambled towards the pit. He pulled out a speaker and his phone.

"Any requests?" he asked.

"I'm up for whatever," said Marinette, who hopped into the pit, taking off her hoodie.

"Anything?" Chat repeated, eyeing her as she took off her hoodie.

"Any song." Marinette rolled her eyes. "We've only got until five, so don't take forever."

Chat flipped through his music and chose "X Gon' Give It To Ya" by DMX. Marinette rolled her eyes, and Chat stood up.

"So how do we do this?" Marinette asked.

"Just follow my lead," Chat said, and started dancing. She did her best to mimic his krumping, but she had never enjoyed that style totally.

Marinette followed what Chat was doing. She got the jist soon and was able to read what they should do based on what he was doing. When the song ended, Marinette was a bit out of breath already.

"Jeez, is it hot in here, or is it just me?" asked Chat, pulling up his shirt as if to take it off.

"It's just you, keep your clothes on," Marinette protested, shielding her eyes.

"Why, Ladybug, you think I'm hot? I cat hardly believe it."

Marinette rolled her eyes. She grabbed his phone and started flipping through his music. She looked up at him with surprise and confusion as she started playing a song. "I'm So Lucky" by Priscilla G started playing.

Chat shrugged. "It's got a good beat."

Marinette nodded. "My turn to lead, kitty," she said, and stepped forwards to stat their dance. She tried a mix of waacking and house dancing now, and was surprised to see Chat respond in a blend of the same styles.

They kept dancing until they were too tired to stand anymore. They sat on the edge of the pit. Marinette had packed a few water bottles and handed one to Chat.

"Thanks," he said, opening the water bottle and taking a sip. "How'd you learn to break dance?"

Marinette chose her words carefully as she drank from her own water bottle. "I took some basic classes in high school, and then I kinda started doing it on my own. I watched YouTube tutorials as well as videos of breakers and b-boys, and I tried to figure out how they do what they do."

"But no 'formal training'?"

"Not really, no. I do it to relax."

"Same."

"What about you? How'd you learn?"

Chat shrugged. "I feel like I've been dancing my whole life. My dad and mom both were dancers, so it wasn't like I had much of a choice."

"Do you like dancing?"

"Yeah, I love it, especially krumping and boogaloo. But my dad is more of a jazz/ballet/tap guy. You know, 'respectable' types of dancing."

"What about your mom?"

Chat's eyes fell. "She- she left when I was a kid."

Marinette's eyes went wide and she had to stop herself from spitting up the water she was drinking. "Oh, shit, sorry Chat, I didn't mean to-"

Chat waved her off. "It's fine, you didn't know. I don't know. My dad's made me dance all my life, and he only let me take a few break dancing classes if I also took jazz AND tap AND ballet."

Marinette winced, and she felt like she had no time helping out her parents at the bakery on the weekends. "Sounds like a busy schedule."

"It was worth it, I just- I feel like, outside of Miraculous, I can't express how much I love doing this."

"Sorry you feel that way," said Marinette. "No wonder you were champ for so long, you literally can dance me out of anywhere."

Chat's eyebrows rose. "You don't know how to dance other than break dancing?"

"Well- I- well, I didn't say that," Marinette spluttered. She was trying to reveal as little about herself as possible. "Ballet, mostly. But I've done some jazz and hip-hop before."

"Ah, I thought I saw some pirouettes in your landings," said Chat.

Marinette laughed. "Ok, ok, do you want to keep going or stop for the day?" Marinette checked her phone. "It's 4:30."

"I'm always willing to spend time with you, Bugaboo."

"I'll take that as a no." Marinette said, standing up. Chat followed, grabbing her arm. Marinette looked back up at him.

"Go to dinner with me tonight, please," said Chat. "We can drop the act, the paint and the costumes."

Marinette blinked. "I- Chat, I-"

"I know we don't know each other very well, but I want to get to know you Ladybug, who you really are."

Marinette swallowed. "I can't, Chat. I'm sorry, but I can't do that. We're partners, we're not really even friends yet. I think we should try to be friends before we try to be anything else."

Chat's face initially fell, but then perked up. "So you're telling me there's a chance?"

Marinette laughed and rolled her eyes. "Only you could read that far into a rejection."

Chat shrugged. "What can I say? When I fall I get back up again, cats get nine lives you know."

Marinette smiled and shook her head. "I'm heading out. Same thing tomorrow?"

Chat thought a moment. "Yeah, sounds purrfect."

"Goodbye, Chat," Marinette called as she opened the door to leave.

"See you tomorrow, my lady."

* * *

 

Wednesday came too soon, and it was time for the tournament to begin. Alya and Nino met up right after school, and Marinette finally got to see the real face behind the Bubbler. She honestly never would've recognized him if Alya didn't introduce him as Nino.

"If you're going to be dancing, who'll be DJing?" asked Marinette, sipping from her slurry they'd gotten.

They were sitting in the park near the Academy, drinking slurries in the shade of the beech trees.

"My main man, the Gamer." Nino and Alya sat on the ground. Alya was sitting cross-legged, Nino with his legs stretched out, his arm was rested behind her back. "He DJs on Doubles Night."

"Have you ever done singles on Friday?" Alya asked, picking at her slurry.

"A few times, a loooooong time ago."

"How well did you do?" Marinette leaned forwards on her set on the bench to hear Nino's answer.

Nino shrugged. "Let's just say it's better for everyone if I stick to DJing."

"Don't say that, you're great!" Alya protested. "You'll see, Marinette, he'll knock you off your feet."

"So you'll be there, Marinette?"

Marinette and Alya shared a look.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," said Marinette, eyes fixed on Alya's.

Nino didn't seem to notice, but stared at the fountain in the middle of the park.

"Bro," he called suddenly, and stood up abruptly. He jogged towards a figure near the fountain, and came back with a familiar face.

"Hi, Adrien," Alya called, not moving from her spot.

"Hey, Alya, Marinette, it's nice to see you both." He moved to sit on the bench by Marinette.

"Uh uh," said Alya, holding up her slurry. "You need a slurry to come sit here."

Adrien held up his hands defensively as he set his bag on the bench. "Sorry, I didn't know the rules, where do I get one?"

"Over there," said Alya, pointing to a vendor. Adrien thanked her and headed over.

"Ok, now Marinette, breath with me, in…and out."

Marinette did what she said, letting go of her grip on her cup and her jeans.

"Whoa, Marinette and Ad-" Nino started.

"Yes, Marinette and Adrien, and if you breathe a word of it to him I'll effing kill you." It was Nino's turn to hold up his hands defensively.

"Ohhkay," he said, scooting away from her.

Adrien came back with his own slurry and sat down next to Marinette. Though there was a good foot of space between them, but Marinette could almost feel the beat of his heart (or was that her own?) and the breath from his lips.

"What're you guys talking about?" asked Adrien, drinking from his slurry.

"You hear of Miraculous?" Alya asked.

Adrien's eyes flicked up to Nino, then back at his slurry. "Yeah I've heard of it."

"Nino and I are break dancing there tonight. You should come and see us."

Marinette's eyes widened and she gave Alya the "shut your mouth before I shut it for you" face™.

"I might. I don't know if I'm free, it is a school night." Adrien picked at his slurry and drank some more.

"Marinette will be there," said Nino. "You guys could hang out."

Adrien eyed Marinette, nearly making her heart stoop. "Studying break dancing, Marinette? You're determined to make it into the troop, aren't you?"

Marinette turned red and rubbed the back of her neck. In truth, with all her practices with Chat, she had quite forgotten about the Academy's troop. "Well- I mean- it can't hurt, can it?"

"Yeah, when do we hear about that, Adrien?" asked Alya determinedly.

Adrien rolled her eyes. "I have no idea. Chloe and Sabrina didn't pay attention to any of the dancers on Saturday, and so that essentially leaves me as the sole decider on whether people make it."

"No pressure or anything," joked Alya. "Speaking of, what about Marinette and I?"

Adrien's face turned pink at the sudden pressure. "I- well, we'll see, I can't make any promises, but I don't see why not. It's not like we have a wide array of dancers to choose from."

Nino checked his watch. "We should probably get going, Alya. We need to get there early to sign up."

Alya and Nino stood up, they said goodbye and left Marinette and Adrien sitting on the bench. Alya gave Marinette a wink as she walked away.

"Soooo," said Adrien after a long silence. "How's it going, Marinette?"

"Uh, g- good…? You?"

"Great, just great."

Awkward pause.

"I- I saw that you saw that Ladybug video." Marinette realized how creepy that sounded and spluttered. "Not that I stalk you on social media or anything, I just- well, I-"

"I understand. Yeah, it's amazing. She's…amazing." The way Adrien said the last two words made Marinette want to drag him to Miraculous and show him that she was Ladybug, that she was the one who deserved his praise.

"She's going to be at Miraculous tonight."

"Yeah, she's dancing with Chat Noir, isn't she?"

"Oh, so you've been to Miraculous?" The thought that Adrien had been there while she was dancing made her insides feel tingly.

Adrien looked like he'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "Uh, I've been a few times, a long time ago. I've seen the promotions around town."

"Ah, Le Dessinateur's work."

"That- that's who does those? Huh."

Another awkward silence.

"Uh, A- Adrien?" Marinette asked tentatively.

"Yeah, Marinette?"

"I feel bad, but I gotta bail if I wanna see Alya and Nino at Miraculous." She stood to leave.

"Yeah, I gotta go too, it was nice to see you."

They both waved and left in opposite directions. Marinette's phone vibrated and she pulled it out of her pocket.

Alya: How're you and Adrien ;)

Marinette rolled her eyes at Alya's text.

Marinette: we talked about the ladybug vid and then i had to run

Alya: Ah, not willing to make Chat Noir wait even if that means giving up time with Swagreste interesting

Marinette: plz tell me you r not permanently calling him that lol

Alya: maybe :P

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hadn't realized but this chapter is very symmetrical. Chat Noir is chasing after Ladybug and Marinette is chasing after Adrien. Doubles Night is next chapter, sorry for teasing you.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Doubles Night kicks off...right where it hurts. And Nathanael plans his masterpiece.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's time guys, Doubles Night is here *cue inevitable screaming* I hope it lives up to the hype because you guys have been going nuts over it.  
> Also the actual plot of this fic is finally coming into play...fucking finally am i right?  
> Thanks so much for all the support.

Marinette was there before Chat was, and had to wait for him outside. There were two lines into Miraculous today: the regular one to get inside the main entrance, and the one for the sign ups for Doubles Night.

Chat finally showed up just as Marinette was ready to go inside without him.

"Sorry, Ladybug," panted Chat, he looked like he had run the entire way here.

"Are you sure you're ok to dance, Chat? You don't look well."

"Yeah, yeah, I had to run here, I missed my bus. I just need a moment to catch my breath."

"I can't see you taking the bus."

"And I couldn't see such a lovely lady such as yourself ever existing, but life has surprises sometimes." Chat had now doubled over and was breathing heavily. "I can dance for hours, but can't run more than three meters without having to catch my breath."

"You must be tired, you haven't made a pun yet."

"Me-ow, lady, if my puns bug you that much, all you had to do was say so."

"You're feeling better. C'mon, let's get in sign up, then we'll get you some water." She pushed Chat in the direction of the line.

"I'd much rather purr-fur some milk. See what I did there? Double pun."

"I got it, thanks. I shouldn't have said anything about your puns."

"Pro-bug-ly not."

"Ok, it's time to stop." Marinette clamped her hand over Chat's mouth when he started to speak again. Chat's hand slid over hers and he closed his eyes as he kissed her palm.

They waited almost twenty minutes in line.

"What if there aren't enough slots for us?" asked Marinette. Nino had told her that there was limited space on the Doubles Night sign ups.

Chat scoffed. "They've literally been plastering the city with our names," he pointed out. "I think all we have to do is just check in so they know we'll be there."

And Chat was right, the staff member of Miraculous running sign ups took one look at Chat and Ladybug and reached for his walkie-talkie.

"They're here," he said into it.

A "Rodger" was heard from the other end of the black box.

"Plagg and Tikki are looking for you guys, Chat, you know the way," the staff member told them. "Next!"

"Uh oh," breathed Chat.

"What 'uh oh'?" asked Marinette. "Who're Plagg and Tikki?"

"The owners. If they want to speak to us, it can't be good."

Chat lead her into the locker rooms and through a doorway that read "Private Personnel Only." Behind the door was a small waiting room and a secretary behind a desk.

"They're inside waiting for you," said the secretary, going back to her work.

Chat and Ladybug went inside the office to see a man and a woman seated behind two desks. The man was the same man who had given Marinette her checks. He was still wearing black with black spiky hair. They woman had fiery red hair, and wore all red.

"Chat, it's nice to see you again," said the woman. "And Ladybug, it's so nice to meet you at last. I'm Tikki, and this is my partner, Plagg. We own Miraculous."

Marinette shook both of their hands, and both she and Chat sat down. There was an air of seriousness, as if someone had died.

"What did you want to talk with us about?" asked Marinette.

"We figured since you are our most recent winners, as well as most likely going to win at Doubles tonight-" started Tikki.

"Not to mention that we've been using you the most for promotion," added Plagg, who was not-so-discreetly looking up cheese on his computer.

"That you should be the first to know about the changes that are about to occur."

"Changes? What changes?" asked Marinette.

"But Miraculous has been the same as it always has been," Chat argued. "It can't change!"

Tikki rubbed her temples. Plagg rolled his chair over and laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Chat, look around this room, what do you notice?" asked Plagg.

Chat looked around. "Nice plant," he said, pointing to the fern in the corner.

"It's pretty big for two people," Marinette added.

"That's because there used to be five more of us in this room," Tikki admitted. "Back in the good old days, when we didn't need shameless promotion or viral videos to bring in the money."

"They're all gone now," said Plagg. "Pursuing their own ventures."

"What are you getting at?" asked Chat suspiciously.

"We have to make a choice," said Tikki, but the words didn't come out easily, as if they physically pained her. "We can either stop offering rewards to the dancers each week, which we absolutely don't want to do, or we'll have to close Miraculous."

Marinette and Chat were both silent for a moment as the words sunk in.

"But- but you can't close Miraculous!" Chat shouted in surprise and rage. "I- you just can't."

"Offer lower rewards, we can handle it!" Marinette suggested emphatically. "Don't close it, please!"

Plagg shook his head as Tikki laid her head on the desk. He rubbed her back calmly.

"It wouldn't be enough, Ladybug. And even if we stopped offering rewards all together, we're sure it would only buy us a few more months if not weeks." Plagg also sounded physically pained as he spoke.

"Look, if it's money you need-" Chat said.

Plagg eyed Chat and seemed to know what he was going to say. "Out of the question."

"But-"

"No! We confided in you because we feel as though we've capitalized on your success, but our cooperation stops there."

Marinette swallowed the lump in her throat. "How long until you close?"

Tikki looked up straight into Marinette's eyes. There were tears at the corners of her deep blue eyes, and more worry lines than Marinette thought healthy. "The end of next month unless things drastically change."

"And if the dancer's stop accepting rewards, then how long?"

Tikki looked surprised. "Well, I suppose, maybe three months from now."

"Perfect," said Marinette standing up. "Don't worry about it anymore, we'll take care of it."

Chat stood with her.

"Ladybug, what are you-"

"You'll see. C'mon Chat, we've got a tournament to win. It was nice meeting you both."

Chat waved as they left the office.

Ladybug made her way back to the locker room, looking on her phone as she made her way to their lockers.

"You've got a plan, I know you do," Chat commented. "I can see it in your eyes. Lay it on me, my lady."

"Shhh," Marinette shushed him. "Keep it down, ok?"

"Alright," Chat whispered. "God, you're pretty."

"What?"

"What?"

Marinette gave him a look but ultimately ignored him. "Do you think 75,000 Euros will be enough to get Tikki and Plagg out of the red?"

Chat looked surprised and shrugged. "I guess it wouldn't hurt if it doesn't. Why? Where are you going to get 75,000 Euros from?"

"I'm not, we are going to get it." Marinette showed him what she'd found on her phone.

Chat's eyes lit up. "Purr-fect. The mayor's break dancing competition! Let's announce it now." He was just about to stand up and yell when Marinette pulled him back down.

"Whoa kitty cat, not right this second. Let's do it on Friday before the Dance Off, we'll be able to ask everyone at once that way."

"Ah, good thinking, my lady."

"Now, forget all about that for now. We have a tournament to win!"

"Indeed we do."

"Hey!" Alya butted her head in between theirs and they both jumped back. "What're you guys talking about?"

"Only how bad we're going to kick your butts!" Chat affirmed.

Alya scoffed. "Save your act for the pit, Chat. I heard you met with the owners, what happened?"

Marinette and Chat eyed each other.

"They just wanted to thank us for letting us use our names to promote the Doubles Tournament," Marinette explained.

Alya seemed to accept this. Though, she didn't have much of a choice since she and Nino were next up.

"Can we go out and watch them?" Marinette turned back to ask Chat. She came face to face with his nose, and she realized he had been sniffing her hair. He smiled sheepishly and stood from the bench. He offered her a hand, which she took.

"C'mon," he said, and they exited the locker room. He tapped the shoulder of the staff member on duty, and they turned to look at Chat. "Who're we after?"

The staff member looked at his list. "You two are the last to go on, after Stoneheart and Horrificator."

"Sweet, we're gonna watch the dances." Chat grabbed Marinette's arm and pulled her into the main part of Miraculous.

Alya and Nino's battle had already started when they arrived on the scene. They were facing the Mime and Rogercop, two older men who were pretty good in their own right.

"What're we gonna do if we have to face them?" asked Marinette.

"Kick their asses, that's what we're gonna do," Chat replied unemotionally. "We have no friends and we take no prisoners in the pit."

They watched as Nino and Alya took their turn to dance. Marinette had never seen Nino dance, and was thoroughly impressed. She smiled when she realized that Alya was even throwing a few moves she had shown her.

"The Bubbler's really good," Marinette shouted over the music.

"He should be, he's using my moves!" Chat shouted back.

Marinette barked out a laugh, but kept watching the two duos. It wasn't until after this battle and the Bubbler/Lady Wifi's victory that Marinette noticed Chat's arm across her shoulder. She made a face at him, and picked his hand off. Chat smiled sheepishly, but did not look sorry in the slightest.

The music was a mashup of different pop songs and techno music. The Gamer stood behind the turntables, his feet shoulder width apart, and his arms crossed over his shoulders. His demeanor was vastly different than that of Nino's, who bobbed up and down with the music.

"So how long have you known Lady Wifi?" Chat asked as the next battle was starting.

"Really? You think now is a good time to chat?"

Chat shrugged. "I don't see why not?"

Marinette bit her lip. The truth? "She made me what I am," she finally settled on. "She runs the Ladyblog, and I wouldn't be nearly as big as I am without her."

"I don't know about that, Bugaboo, you're pretty special."

Marinette rolled her eyes. "That video was tweeted by the son of a really big dancer, Adrien Agreste, you know him?"

Chat looked very uncomfortable all of a sudden. "Y- yeah, I've heard of him. I've heard he's a great guy."

"He's one of the greatest guys I've met." Marinette had to stop herself from clapping her hand over her mouth. "Ladybug" had never met Adrien.

"S- so you've met him?" Chat said, sounding surprised. "When?"

Marinette felt her face grow hot and her tongue grew very heavy. "Well- ok. I have never met him. That is 'Ladybug' has never met him."

Chat's eyes were as wide as oranges now. "But you have in real life?"

"I guess that's a good way to put it, yeah. Anyway, he tweeted that video and it went viral. I'm a fucking meme, Chat."

Chat laughed deeply at this, leaning on his staff for support.

"It's true, I've seen edits for the video where I'm dancing in random places. People have been pausing when I make weird faces, screen-shotting it, and posting it everywhere." Marinette had to wipe her eyes from the tears that were now welling up in her eyes from laughing so hard. Red paint was on her fingers.

There was a collective "OHHH!" from the crowd, and the duo turned to look. Alya and Nino had been defeated by the Puppeteer and Stormy Weather.

"Awe, we missed it," Marinette agonized. "Damn."

"That's what we get for being loudmouths."

Marinette rubbed the paint from her eyes between her fingers, watching it crumble. "Hey, I'm just going to fix my paint, I'll be back in a sec."

"Ok, but hurry, Stoneheart and Horrificator are up next."

"I'll be back." She jogged back into the locker room and to her locker. She grabbed her red paint from her bag and headed over to the mirrors. She dabbed some more paint on the corners of her eyes, but it had smeared off more than she would like. She ended up scrubbing most of it off to get it the way she wanted it.

"Ladybug?!" the staff member called into the locker room.

"Yeah?" asked Marinette.

"It's time! Chat Noir is already down there!"

Well, fuck, was the only thought Marinette had as she furiously slathered on the red paint.

"Ladybug!"

"Coming!" Marinette threw her paint into her locker, slamming the door. She raced out of the room and onto the dance floor.

A crazy, stupid idea popped into her head as she approached the pit. Before she could stop her feet, she had jumped onto a chair, then a table. She then jumped from table to table until she did a front flip over the heads of the onlookers into the pit, landing in a somersault.

Everyone's jaw dropped, and the crowd went nuts. Chat offered her a hand up and she took it.

"I'm liking the wild look, my lady. Furry fierce."

Marinette realized he was referring to her paint, which most likely looked like someone had just thrown blood on her eyes and smudged it.

"Sorry I'm late, I'm struggling a little tonight."

"You made up for it with that entrance, nice."

"Thanks, gymnastics."

"More like fantastics."

"It's the final round," announced the Gamer into the microphone. "Off the Ground" by Bit Funk started, and their opponents started dancing. It was Stoneheart and Horrificator that they were facing. Marinette had to give it to them, they looked so natural together, like they had been made to dance together. As she and Chat started their turn, she realized how natural it felt to dance with him too. He liked to do a lot of krumping, and she liked to do a lot of house. And somehow this seemed to work together well.

They froze facing each other, foreheads nearly touching each other. Marinette could feel Chat breath on her face and realized that she was close enough to kiss him if she had wanted to. If… He certainly looked like he was going to, his eyes were practically glued to her lips. But as the crowd rushed into the pit and lifted them up onto their shoulders, he broke away.

Marinette's face was almost certainly red as a tomato. As they were paraded around the dance floor.

"WINNER!" The Gamer played a video game sound bit of someone winning and Marinette couldn't help but laugh.

They were set down at the bar where some rich customer ordered a round for everyone. They toasted to the ultimate champs: Ladybug and Chat Noir. The duo clinked their glasses together and drank with the rest of the crowd.

Dancing soon resumed, and Alya finally fought her way to Marinette's side, throwing her arms around her

"You guys were fantastic out there," she shouted in Marinette's ear over the music.

"Sorry you guys didn't win," Marinette shouted back . "You two were really good."

"Thanks! But I'm glad I got to see you guys dance. You two were amazing."

"Not bad for five days of practice," Chat piped up.

"Not bad at all," Alya agreed.

The four friends stood by the bar, talking for a little while longer when a newcomer approached. Le Dessinateur's face, hands, and entire body was covered in paint. He looked straight out of a Jackson Pollock painting.

"Um, hi," he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

The four all greeted him in return, all with varying degrees of confusion at his appearance.

"I wanted to ask the four of you a favor." Their confusion turned to intrigue. "I've developed a new style of painting based on break dancing, and I wanted to ask if you would help."

"Sure," Chat said, rolling up his sleeve to show his muscle. "Be sure to paint my good side."

Le Dessinateur's laughed good heartedly. "It's not that type of painting. Come with me, I'll show you."

They followed him through a side door and up a flight of stairs. They walked along a catwalk overlooking the dance floor and through another door to a side room. Buckets of paint, white paper, painted paper, and paint drips were splattered about the room. The walls were covered with spray paint. Marinette blinked as she recognized a pair of blue eyes with blue-black hair in the spray paint. This was Le Dessinateur's studio.

Le Dessinateur turned on his music, an ambiguous hip hop song with a good beat. "Just watch," he said as he pulled a fresh sheet of white paper in the middle of the floor. He threw green and yellow paint onto the sheet, then dipped his hands in purple, bathing all the way up his forearms. He then slid onto the paper and started break dancing in the purest form of the term. He flipped and kicked, spreading the paint around. When he was satisfied, he stood and stepped back, looking at the mess on the floor.

"Well?" he asked, slightly out of breath. "What do you think?"

"It's a mess," Nino commented. Alya stepped on his foot. "Ow!"

"It's very…unique, Le Dessinateur," Alya said.

"Frickin' awesome," Marinette commented, and everyone looked at her. "The perfect marriage of subject and medium."

Alya and Nino both looked at Marinette strangely, but Le Dessinateur beamed.

"Now, I'm not that good of a break dancer, so I've been asking professionals to help out."

Chat scratched the back of his neck. "Well, I wouldn't say we're professionals."

"You know more than me, I mean, look?" Le Dessinateur gestured around the room at his drying artwork. "It all looks the same. I want to see what different varieties of dancers and styles look like."

"I would love to," Marinette beamed at him. "I'm a bit of an artist myself."

"Really? I would love to see some of your work!"

Alya cleared her throat and gestured to her outfit, spinning slowly. "I don't mean to brag, but this is an original Ladybug."

Marinette laughed, but nodded. "I design costumes, it's what I love to do."

"Alright you two nerds," said Chat. "I would also like to do it."

Le Dessinateur beamed even brighter. "You two could do one together. Holy- it will be my pièce de résistance, my best work ever." He wrapped his arms around Ladybug and Chat in excitement. Marinette and Chat looked at each other over Le Dessinateur's shoulders, and smiled nervously at each other. The artist was still entire covered with fresh paint. He let go and then gulped.

"Oh, uh, sorry?" he said as they examined their now painted uniforms. "It washed off, don't worry. Just rub a little acetone on it if it doesn't, just not the pure stuff, it'll probably eat your clothes."

Marinette stepped forwards to look at the most recent painting. "What're you gonna call it?" she asked.

"Hmm, oh, uh, what do you think?"

Marinette tilted her head to one side and observed the painting. "Mardi Gras?"

"Perfect!" Le Dessinateur leaned down and painted in red an exclamation point surrounded by a rectangle, his signature.

"C'mon, Ladybug," Chat said impatiently. "Let's go."

"When do you want to paint?" Marinette asked.

"Uh, whenever you're free."

"I'm free any day after school. What about you, Chat?"

Chat thought a moment. "Friday before the dance off, that's when I'm free."

They made the plan and left Le Dessinateur to his paintings.

"You aren't going to paint with him?" asked Marinette to Nino and Alya.

"Nah, too messy for me," Alya answered. "Besides, you guys are the real works of art here."

"Didn't know you cared so much," Chat commented with a wink.

They made it back to the main room, but now there were far less people.

"I think I'm ready to go home and shower," Marinette said as she looked at her paint splattered clothes.

"Same," said Chat, pointing to his own. "This cat does not like being wet."

"We'll wait for you to get your stuff," Alya called over her shoulder as she dragged Nino to the bar.

Chat and Marinette went to the back to pick up their bags. As Marinette packed up her duffle bag, she noticed Chat. Now that it had been several hours since Plagg and Tikki's announcement, he had allowed himself a moment of weakness away from prying eyes. He was leaning against the locker door, not moving.

"Chat what's wrong?" Marinette rested her hand on his shoulder.

"They can't close Miraculous, they just can't," he said. He sat up as Marinette sat next to him on the bench. "It's the only place I've ever really felt at home. Here I'm loved, adored even, for doing what I enjoy most. It's where I met you." Chat looked up at Marinette, their eyes meeting in a collision of blue and green.

Marinette's hand on his shoulder grew heavier as she gripped his shoulder tight. "They're not going to close this, I promise I will put everything I have into making sure it stays open."

Chat's eyes seemed to water, but he looked away before Marinette was completely sure. He sniffed, and stood, opening his locker to pull out his own bag. "Do you want to keep doing doubles together?" He didn't meet her eyes.

"Of course. But maybe not every single month, we should really let someone else win sometime."

Chat scoffed. "And let those mere mortals get cocky? Nah, we've got a death grip on this spot, my lady, and I'm not about to let it go."

Marinette smiled up at him. "See you on Friday, Kitty Cat?"

"You can bet your Lady-butt I'll be there!" Chat looked up. "Ok, even I admit that was too far."

"Just a bit, yeah."

"But I'm gonna beat you this Friday. Watch out, Bugaboo-"

"You're coming for me, I know."

Marinette's eyes went wide as she felt Chat's lips brush the top of her hair. "You'd better bug-lieve it." He left out the side door, and Marinette watched his back as he left.

She shook her head and stood grabbing her bag. Her thoughts swirled as she headed over to where Nino and Alya were sitting. How was she ever going to convince the dancers on Friday to join them in the tournament? She had never been charismatic or anything else a leader should be, but she was all they had for now. God, Marinette thought to herself. If I'm in charge, what hope is there?

"Where's Chat?" Nino asked.

"He left already."

"Someday that boy will come and hang out with us afterwards."

"But not today," Alya added. "Alright, Bubbly Bubbles, I need to leave."

"Awe, just stay a few more minutes, babe."

Marinette could tell she was about to be extremely third wheel now.

"You know I can't, I'll see you on Friday."

"That's too far away."

"You'll survive."

"But will it be worth it?"

Marinette had to look away as Alya and Nino kissed. She was very far down the road of "let's go home."

"You tell me," Alya said as she untangled her body from Nino's arms.

"Bye, Bubbler," said Marinette as she and Alya left. She looked up and saw Le Dessinateur standing on the catwalk, looking out over the dance floor. She nodded to herself, realizing it must be the best seats in the house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you think about it, it makes absolutely no sense as to how Marinette was able to jump over everyone and into the pit, but whatever, it sounds cool so I put it in there.  
> So there you go, Doubles Night.  
> The next chapter is going to be very different, just so you know. We're going to take a break from the linear narrative just for a chapter (maybe more if you guys end up liking it)


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Essentially, Chat Noir owes his origins to two guys dancing in a park in a totally non-gay way. When Adrien met Nino, he could have never guessed his life would change the way it did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like I said last chapter, this chapter is a bit different. It's a flashback, I hope you enjoy it. Please don't ask me about timelines or anything like that because I have no idea. I enjoyed writing it, I hope you enjoy reading it.

Adrien just wanted to see what it was like. Just this one night of sin, and then never again.

It wasn't that hard getting past the bouncer. Though he considered himself above many things, there wasn't much the Agreste name and a few bills couldn't get. He felt dirty trading the family name for a night in a club, but he forced himself to take one step in front of another.

When he had arrived, the dances had already started. He had to push a few people aside to get to the front, but he had to see what was going on. No one noticed who he was. Adrien was drowning in anonymity and loving it big time. His eyes were glued to every move of every muscle of every dance. Dancers came and went. To him, it was as if the entire thing was in slow motion. He critiqued each dancer, judging them one by one based on his knowledge.

A big guy dressed all in brown was facing a guy in red, yellow, and blue. Adrien's face lit up at the display. The guy in brown had a bounce style that Adrien had been sure a guy of his size would never been able to achieve. The other guy's mixture of popping and turfing was so much more refined and calm. Adrien was not surprised when the guy in brown was declared winner, crowds always ate up big movements like those.

The other dancer had a look of such forlorn rejection, Adrien had to follow him to his seat at the bar. He'd come to see the dancing, but something about this lost soul drew him in.

He ordered a whiskey and soda and Adrien bought his drink. He looked at Adrien out of the corner of his eyes.

"If you seriously think a drink is going to get me to go home with you, you can think again," the dancer said, completely straight-faced. "You gotta treat me nice, I'm not like the other girls."

Adrien laughed sincerely, the first one in a long time. "I'll try to keep that in mind," he responded. "Adrien." He held his hand out to the dancer to shake. He turned to shake Adrien's hand, eyes suddenly going wide. Adrien's face fell, expecting him to scream and then he would be surrounded by fans and cameras and then his father would hear about it and…

The dancer's hand closed around his, and he shook Adrien's hand firmly. "Nino, but they call me 'the Bubbler' here."

Adrien smiled and returned the Bubbler's shake. "It's nice to meet you, the Bubbler."

"Just Bubbler is fine." He sipped from his drink. "What brings an Agreste to our humble club?"

Adrien shrugged. "Agreste is my name and dancing is my game, and I hear you have quite a display of that sort of thing."

The Bubbler gestured to the dance floor where the tournament was still going on. "There you go. Once a week we breakers compete to see who can get their freak on the best in the freakiest costume."

"Sounds dangerous."

The Bubbler shrugged. "I haven't heard of lives lost, but I have heard some horror stories from the older dancers about broken hands and limbs."

Adrien nodded. "You were really good, you should've won over…" Adrien didn't know the name of the Bubbler's opponent.

"Stoneheart," the Bubbler finished, then shrugged. "He's a good guy. Got a crush on the Horrificator."

"The what?"

"The Horrificator. She's this stocky dancer that's maybe five-foot even. A beast on the dance floor though."

"Sounds like a match made in heaven."

The Bubbler laughed so hard he almost spit his drink. "The best part is that she's scared of him in his costume."

"What?"

"You heard me. Girl can waack better than anyone I've ever seen, but when she sees Stoneheart she has to duck behind something."

Adrien laughed. He brushed his blonde hair out of his eyes and realized he hadn't laughed this much in a long time. "You should add some boogaloo to your style, then the crowd will go wild."

"Boogaloo? Bro, that's older than my grandfather."

Adrien stood from his barstool, an offended look on his face.

"Ohhh," the Bubbler mumbled from behind his glass. "White boy about to show me something."

"You bet your bubble ass I am," Adrien retorted, not sure where the words were coming form. "You'll think twice before you make fun of boogaloo like that."

"Lush Life" by Zara Larsson was playing over the dancers in the tournament, but Adrien was center stage for the Bubbler. He swung his hips and rolled his body with the music. The Bubbler's mouth dropped as Adrien finished.

"See? It's just like popping, but it's got some funk to it."

"Dude, you gotta come back next week to participate in the Dance Off."

Adrien shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. "No, no, I'm not even that good."

"Looked pretty good to me."

Adrien shrugged. "Like I said, 'Agreste is my name and dancing is my game.' I'm a lot better at jazz and ballet, and I prefer them better." At least, that was what his dad always told him, and he'd come to believe him.

"Bull. Shit."

"What?"

"That was beautiful man, that was poetry. I can't believe you are better at jazz or look any better in a tutu than you did just now."

"Well, I am. And I do not wear a tutu!"

The Bubbler shrugged and finished his drink. "Regardless, you could do really well in the Dance Off."

"Or…" Adrien came to sit back on his stool next to the Bubbler.

"Or what?"

"Or I could help  _you_  do really well in the Dance Off."

The Bubbler looked very confused at this statement. "I don't follow."

"I could show you how to boogaloo. Do you know any breaking or krumping?"

"Do I know- Do you think I would be here if I didn't know how to break or krump?"

"Well, do you?"

The Bubbler paled, even under his blue makeup. "Uh, no. I don't." He hastily sipped his drink despite the fact that it was empty. Adrien signaled the bartender for a refill of the Bubbler's drink.

"I can teach you," Adrien assured him with a shrug.

"I can't take lessons from you!"

"Why not? I won't charge."

"Because you're Adrien fucking Agreste," the Bubbbler whisper shouted. "Son of Gabriel fucking Agreste, one of the biggest dancers in Europe."

"I'm aware of my father's reputation, but I wasn't aware of the addition to our family name. 'Fucking-Agreste', hmmm, has a certain ring to it."

"I'm dreaming, I have to be, this is the part where I wake up."

Adrien patted his back in a strictly manly fashion, and laughed. "C'mon man, I have all this knowledge and all this experience and no one to share it with."

"I already told you, you gotta treat me better than other girls, Adrien. I'm not some some girl in a princess shirt and pigtails, ok?"

"C'mon, Bubbler, one lesson, and if you don't do better in the next Dance Off, we'll stop."

The Bubbler sighed. "I'm going insane, that has to be the answer."

"I'm not hearing a 'no.'"

The Bubbler shook his head and stood. "Fine, ok, but one lesson."

"When and where?"

"Tomorrow at noon, you know the park over by L'Académie d'Art Paris?"

"I take classes there."

"For real?"

"For real. Alright, I'll meet you there at noon."

A loud cheer rose up from the crowd on the dance floor, and their attention snapped to the person being carried on their shoulders. The Bubbler scoffed and sipped his drink.

"Who won?"

"The same guy whose won as long as I've been here."

"How long ago was that?"

"Six months ago, and he'd been the winner a long time before I showed up."

"Wow," Adrien gasped, watching the winner being paraded around. "And you're gonna be the one to beat him."

"Whoa, whoa, let's not go too far. I agreed to one lesson, not dethroning a king."

"Ah, to _may_ to, to _mah_ to." Adrien stood up and brushed his shirt off. "I'll see you tomorrow at noon, Bubbler, but I gotta take off before someone who isn't as discreet as you realizes it's me."

"Cheers Agreste, I'll see you tomorrow."

Adrien walked away from the bar, using his phone to call a car to take him back to his apartment complex.

* * *

Adrien was sitting on a bench in the park the Bubbler/Nino had mentioned. The shade from the beech trees let in enough sunlight to keep him from being cold, but allowed him to not have to shield his eyes. Regardless he wore mirrored sunglasses. For anonymity, as well as badassery.

"Dude, when I asked you to meet me, I did not mean for you to show up looking like a total chick magnet."

Adrien looked up at the young man his age with a start. He was unfamiliar to Adrien in ever respect.

"Do I know-"

The man's smile faltered. "It's me, it's Nino. We agree to meet today."

Adrien's eyes widened and his mouth dropped. He stood and clapped hands with Nino, patting his shoulder. "Bro, I am so sorry, I totally didn't recognize you without the, uh-" Adrien gestured to his face to illustrate his point.

Nino nodded. "I totally understand, man. I once met the Gamer outside of Miraculous, and I didn't believe him for, like, fifteen minutes that we knew each other."

Adrien laughed. "Who's 'the Gamer'?"

"He's one of the DJs at Miraculous. I can't even tell you man, there can't be a better job than that."

Adrien nodded thoughtfully. "Alright bro, let's get down to business." He turned on his music on his phone, deciding to forgo the speakers in order to not disturb the rest of the park-goers. "Let's start with some basic boogaloo."

Nino winced. "Do you have to call it that?"

Adrien looked Nino dead in the eye with a straight expression. "Boo. Ga. Loo. Learn it, love it, be it. Or get the fuck out."

Nino looked like he was going to leave, and Adrien's heart faltered.

"Just playing, man. But we can rethink the name, maybe?"

"Nice one, and no, we can't."

Nino shrugged. "I tried."

"Ok, let's start with some basic moves."

They drew a lot of looks from onlookers at their little lesson, but no one said anything. When they reached a stopping point, Nino fell on the ground in a lump and groaned.

"What's the matter, bubble butt?" Adrien said, kneeling down. "Can't handle a little boogaloo?"

"This is torture! You like this? You do this for fun?" Nino's voice was muffled by the ground.

Adrien shrugged. "Well, I learned in a class so I also had to in order to pass."

"You're insane."

Adrien shook his head. "If you practice what I've shown you, you'll definitely do better at the Dance Off on Friday."

"If I survive, that is."

Adrien laughed.

* * *

"Next up folks," announced the DJ. "Stormy Weather versus the Bubbler!"

Adrien cheered for Nino as he came out in his blue, yellow, and red costume. The dance battle commenced and Adrien watched Nino with a critical eye. He had definitely practiced, though not as much as Adrien probably would've liked. He was still doing really well. The crowd ate him up, and he was declared the winner.

The Bubbler looked around wildly, and when he saw Adrien, gave him the biggest grin. Adrien returned it with a smirk and a thumbs-up.

Nino won the next three battles, and was finally defeated by Dark Cupid. Adrien wasn't surprised. Dark Cupid had a certain flair that made everyone like him.

Adrien followed Nino back to the bar where the dancer was buzzing with energy.

"Did you see me, bro?" he demanded energetically.

"Yeah I did."

"I was amazing!"

"Well, you were better than last week, that's for sure."

"You gotta teach me more man!"

"One condition." Adrien held up one finger.

"Anything!"

"Say it."

"Say what?"

Adrien crossed his arms over his chest. "Boogaloo is cool."

Nino faltered and then sighed. "Boogaloo…is cool." He looked like the words physically pained him.

"You bet it is. Alright, I'll meet you at the park tomorrow same place, same time."

And so a semi-tradition was born. Nino and Adrien met in the park to practice on Saturdays and practiced their break dancing. Nino would compete in the Dance Off, slowly moving up in the ranks. They both benefitted, however. Adrien learned more and more about Miraculous and their style of competition each week.

Nino went with him to Doubles Night, just so Adrien could see what it was like. Well, Nino wanted Adrien to hear the Gamer's DJing.

"He's sick, bro. He's got this techno style and can mix it with nearly any song and make it a good song for breaking."

"So he could take Holst Suite in Eflat Major and make me want to krump to it?"

"I don't even know what that means." Nino wore regular clothes without the paint on his face. He and Adrien watched the doubles come and go. "Hey," Nino called, swatting Adrien's shoulder to get his attention. "We should do doubles together."

There was nothing Adrien wanted more. "No, I told you, man. I don't want to compete."

"But we would be doing it together, it's different than if you were competing by yourself."

Adrien shrugged. "Break dancing is an art, I do it exceptionally well.  _I do it so it feels like hell, I do it so it feels real._ "

"Rap?"

Adrien shook his head. "Plath."

"Who?"

"Sylvia Plath, she's a famous-"

The crowd's roar erupted around them, and they turned back to the dance floor. An older couple had won, they looked pretty pleased with themselves, and were headed out to the bar.

Adrien and Nino turned to go back to the bar when Adrien flinched, and jumped behind Nino.

"Bro, you see a ghost?" Nino asked.

"Don't look now, but Chloe Bourgeois is over there."

"Where?!" Nino craned his neck to find the heiress.

"Shhh!"

"Why are you hiding from her?"

"She and I have known each other since we were kids. If she sees me, she'll tell my father."

"I can take you through a back way if-" Nino was cut off by someone coming up to him. He wore all black with neon green and purple glasses that looked like a winged insect. "Hey, Gamer, how's it going man?" The two of them pounded fists. "This is my man, Adrien." Nino gestured to Adrien. The Gamer and Adrien nodded to each other.

"I need a favor," the Gamer said. "I need you to DJ for one song. I need to talk to Plagg and Tikki for a second."

Nino's entire face lit up, but then he looked at Adrien and his face fell. "I can't- I gotta-"

"I'll find my own way out," Adrien assured him. "You go and kill it, Bubbler. Show 'em what you're made of. I'll be fine."

"Are you-"

"I'm sure. I'll see you on Friday."

Nino looked so ecstatic he looked like he might burst. "I got you, Gamer. You go talk to the bosses."

"See you man, good luck." Adrien looked around for the best possible route. Chloe was by the bar, chatting with her lackey, Sabrina. Adrien made it to the wall and crawled along it until he was able to make it out into the front hall and then outside.

He had nearly made it to the street before the paparazzi pounced on him.

"Adrien-!"

"Mr. Agreste!"

"Does your father know you're here?"

"Did you participate in the Doubles Tournament?"

Cameras flashed and people crowded around him. Adrien did his best to move as close to the car he'd ordered as possible. All he felt was an overwhelming sense of dread. Those pictures would almost certainly be in tomorrow's paper, and his father would definitely see it and…ugh.

He had dared to hope for once that he wasn't an Agreste, that he was just a normal 19 year-old who went to clubs with his friends. He envied Nino as well the rest of the dancers and their anonymity. Hell, one of them could've been his own father and he never would've known it.

He got back to his apartment and flopped onto his bed, instantly passing out with his clothes still on.

* * *

_"Hey, uh, Nino, it's Adrien. I won't be able to make it to Miraculous on Friday. Something's…come up at home and I can't make it. I hope you'll understand. Gimme a call back."_

* * *

_"Hey, Adrien, it's Nino, don't worry about it, I won't be dancing Friday actually. I've got a gig, I'm DJing for the Dance Off on Friday."_

* * *

"What do you mean you're not dancing?" Adrien asked Nino over the phone.

"I'm not, I'm DJing, like I told you. Gamer let me finish his set and Plagg and Tikki saw me. They want a separate DJ for the Dance Off on Fridays, and they asked me to do it!"

"But you've worked so hard on your dancing! You've gotten so much better!"

"Gee, Adrien, you almost sound like you're not happy for me." Nino sounded very sarcastic.

"I am happy for you, but-"

"I appreciate all the help you've given me, bro. I really do. But this opportunity may never come around again. I hope you'll come to forgive me one day."

"I'm sorry, it's just, I'd hate to see all of your talent go to waste."

"Don't you mean  _your_  talent?"

"What'd you mean?"

"Bro, like I have been saying since day one, you should participate in the Dance Off, you're the best I've ever seen and you would literally win."

"I told-"

"No, I'm tired of your excuses. I have eyes, I can see how much you want to do it. Forget about your dad or whatever's holding you back, just go and do it."

"It's not that simple."

"Sure it is. Do you want to participate in the Dance Off?"

"Not r-"

"No lying!"

"Well, a little bit."

"Then do it. One night is not going to kill you."

"That's what I told myself the first night I came to Miraculous. Now my face is plastered all over the tabloids and my father won't get off my back."

"Savage, man." Nino was silent for a moment. "You don't have to go this week, think on it, let the buzz die down a little bit, then try."

Adrien and Nino hung up, and Adrien was left with his own thoughts. Adrien decided to take a walk to clear his head, but his thoughts would not leave him alone. Why not compete? Why not? Because of his father, because of the publicity, because-

Because he was scared of doing something so outside the normalcy of his life.

Adrien stopped in front of a clothing store and looked in the window, but not registering what was inside. It was one thing to go to Miraculous and enjoy the dancing, but it was another thing to dance himself. And Adrien couldn't find a good reason to not go. Every fiber of his being was screaming to go, to show them in Miraculous how Agreste's kick it.

He finally looked in the window and noticed the mannequin. It was wearing a black short-sleeved hood with cat ears on top. Adrien smirked to himself. What his father didn't know, wouldn't hurt him.

* * *

With the hood and paint over his eyes, Adrien felt like a completely different person. A better version of himself perhaps. A couple of girls stared at him as he walked by to find Nino. He smirked and winked at them, but didn't stop to talk. For the first time, he felt comfortable in his own skin, and he reveled in it.

"Hey, bro," he said to Nino, gauging his reaction.

"Hey, man," Nino responded, not giving him a second look.

"Nino, it's me."

Nino looked again, squinting to get a good look at Adrien's face.

"I'm sorry, I don't-"

"Boogaloo is cool."

Nino's eyes went wide. "Adrien! Bro! I- wow, I didn't even recognize you."

Adrien smirked. "Thanks."

"I didn't think- I mean-"

"You didn't think I'd actually show up?"

"Well, no."

Adrien shrugged. "Here I am."

"And you're going to dance?"

Adrien nodded. "Am I allowed to use this?" He held up a silver-colored staff.

"What're you, a stripper?"

Adrien shrugged. "I might be, it's that kind of night."

Nino laughed. "Yeah, you can, but first we gotta get you signed up."

Chat went through the process of filling out the form to compete. He had to give his real name, but Nino assured him that the owners were extremely discreet and wouldn't record it anywhere.

"It's just for billing purposes," Nino assured him.

"Billing?"

"Yeah, the reward."

"What reward?"

"If you get in the top 10 dancers for the week, you get paid. 500 Euros for the winner, 450 for the second, etc."

"I don't need money, I just want to dance."

"Then donate it back to Miraculous." Nino shrugged. "Good luck, man. I've gotta go and get ready for my set, kill it out there."

Because he was the newest dancer, Adrien was the first to go on with another new dancer, Timebreaker. She was really good, but he was better. Adrien blew through the ranks, only getting beat by the 6th place winner, Darkblade. He had misjudged the older dancer, who faked him out and caused him to trip and fall on his face.

He met Nino after the dance off was done.

"Nice job," Adrien told him as they pounded fists.

"Thanks, man. You were too. You should've won over that old guy."

"He's not old, and I was too cocky, I should've known better."

"Yeah, how dare you. It's not like you have next week or the week after that, or the-"

"I get it, thanks."

"You'll get 'em next week, champ."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was supposed to be super bromance...and it turned out super gay, and I'm sorry about that. I didn't mean for it to happen, but I will admit to the implications.  
> "White boy 'bout to show me something" is my new favorite part, just fyi


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Painting with Le Dessinateur, and the bombshell is dropped on the rest of the Miraculous dancers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaaaand back to our regularly scheduled programming.  
> You guys really loved the Adrien chapter, which makes me really happy because I really enjoyed writing it. I ma write another, but we'll see.

Ladybug's crop-top was essentially ruined from all the wear and tear from dancing at Miraculous, and the paint Le Dessinateur had accidentally got on it was the straw that broke the camel's back. Marinette ended up just making a new costume entirely. Her first attempt, back before she'd challenged Chat, had been made in a few hours from clothes she already had. Now she was making it with care according to her needs for this costume.

She liked playing the videos from the Ladyblog in the background as she worked. Alya had been good at recording all of her battles, and uploading them to the blog. She had taken pictures of Marinette (in her Ladybug costume) and Chat Noir as well as all of the promotion art for Doubles Night featuring the two of them. Alya now even had a Twitter, Tumblr, and YouTube accounts all for the purpose of spreading Ladybug's image across the world wide web.

After she had finished, she got another crazy, stupid idea in her head. She did have extra black and green fabric…She tried not to feel weird as she worked. She tried…and failed miserably. She was done during her lunch hour on Friday, just in time to jet back to school.

Ballet was always the last class, and always the one Marinette looked forwards to the least. Though she loved ballet, Marinette hadn't been practicing nearly as much as she should be. Too much break dancing, that was sure. Today Mme. Bustier had them pair up, she picked the partners and Marinette ended up with Mylene. Mylene was short and kind of chubby, but she was nice and understanding that Marinette was absentminded.

"Ivan and I are excited for the Academy troop," Mylene chatted as they practiced their spins. "I hope we both make it into the troop."

"I'm sure you both will," Marinette commented absentmindedly.

"I hope you get in too."

"Hmmm, oh, thanks, Mylene. I'm not that interested in break dancing."

"Oh, it's a pity, you're really good."

"How- how do you-"

"I saw you teaching Alya on Saturday, you looked like you really knew what you were doing."

"Oh, well- um, it's more of a hobby, really."

Marinette was trying desperately not to stare at Adrien as he was working with his partner, Rose. Every move he made was flawless, but he seemed…bored. Every spin and leap was perfect in every way, but was hampered by his lack of spirit.

"-have you heard of it?" Mylene asked.

"Huh, what?"

"That club, Miraculous?"

"Oh, y- yeah, Alya and I went once."

"I think you'd really enjoy it. The break dancing there is really good."

Marinette laughed good heartedly. "Alright, Mylene."

"You seem distracted today, what's on your mind?"

Marinette sighed. "It's going to be a long day today, and it hasn't even gotten started yet."

Mylene seemed to understand.

As the class wrapped up, Mylene offered her a fist bump, and Marinette obliged.

"Stay classy, Marinette," Mylene said as she left the room where Ivan was waiting for her.

Marinette watched as the couple headed down the hall, their hands intertwined. Marinette bit her lip as she realized how much she really wanted what they had, but couldn't get it. At least not with how things were going for her now.

She was brought out of her reverie by the door opening. Adrien Agreste peeked out, and, seeing Marinette, smiled and came to stand next to her. Marinette bade her feet yield from running, and plastered as sincere of a smile as she could on her face.

"I never got to ask, how was doubles night on Wednesday?" he asked.

Marinette bit her tongue to force it to make words. "It- uh, it was great."

"Nino told me they didn't win, but how did they do?"

"Oh- they- they did great."

"Did you end up seeing Chat Noir and Ladybug?"

"Uh, yeah I did, they were-"

"Great?" Adrien said, cutting her off. He then clapped his hand over his mouth, but Marinette laughed. "Sorry."

"It's fine, they were really good. The crowd really loved them."

"Sorry I missed them then."

"Uh- Nino told me they'd be in the singles Dance Off tonight."

"Oh, really? Will you be there?"

Marinette's breath caught in her throat. To lie or not to lie? That is the question. "Uh, I don't know, it- its my first free night in a while and I kinda wanted to just sit in, y- you know?"

"Yeah, same, well, about wanting to sit in. I unfortunately have plans so I can't go."

"Oh, what're you doing?" Marinette could kick herself. Adrien himself seemed disturbed by the question. "I- I mean, um, you ah-" Marinette couldn't force the words to come out. "I'm just- gonna…go." She turned and practically ran away from Adrien.

* * *

 

A few hours later, Marinette stood in her Ladybug costume outside Miraculous with Le Dessinateur waiting for Chat Noir. He wore the same purple hoodie with a white shirt with purple stripes and the primary colors in the middle. They chatted idly about art and dancing. They were interrupted as a grumpy looking Chat ambled towards them.

"Hmmm, someone isn't a happy kitty," Marinette commented.

"I should be napping right now," Chat yawned as he spoke, stretching.

"Well, you didn't have to come." Le Dessinateur had unlocked the door, and beckoned the two of them to follow him inside.

"And leave you alone with this guy? No way."

Marinette smiled and tickled underneath his chin. "Awe, you do care,  _petite chaton_."

Chat smiled at the touch. "I never stopped, Bugaboo."

They followed Le Dessinateur up to his studio again. "Thank you both so much for doing this, it means a lot to me."

"No problem," Chat replied. "It's my dream to be immortalized."

Marinette rolled her eyes. "Le Dessinateur?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you sell your art?"

"I try to."

"Is- is there anyway you could donate part of the proceeds of our paintings to Miraculous?"

Chat and Le Dessinateur both looked at her with wide eyes, and she blushed.

"Um, sure, but I gotta tell you, Plagg and Tikki are my main buyers."

"Well, if you could sell it to any one else, please, whatever you can part with, Chat and I want it donated to Miraculous." Chat nodded emphatically.

"That's really altruistic of you," Le Dessinateur commented. "I'm sure Tikki and Plagg will appreciate it."

"Quite the penny pincher, aren't you?" Chat whispered to Marinette.

"Hey, every little bit helps."

Le Dessinateur laid out a fresh paper on the ground. "Alright, who wants to go first?"

"I'll take care of this, my lady," Chat proclaimed, taking off his shoes and socks. "You just stand there and look buga-bootiful."

Marinette rolled her eyes and pushed him towards the paper. "Don't slip!"

"What do I gotta do, bro?" Chat asked Le Dessinateur.

"I was thinking green and black for you Chat, and then red and white for Ladybug." Marinette nodded, this seemed like a good mix. Le Dessinateur began pouring a small amount of black paint on the paper. "Go ahead and put the green paint on your arms and feet." He indicated the bucket of lime green paint to Chat.

Chat made a face as he slathered the green paint on his hands, arms, and feet. "Uh, is this safe for us to roll around in?"

Le Dessinateur didn't answer, he was looking for a song on his phone.

"Hello?" Chat demanded.

"I'm sure it's fine, Chat. Le Dessinateur has done this himself before," Marinette answered for him.

"Well, artists haven't had the best track record for taking care of themselves."

Le Dessinateur started "Uptown Funk" by Mark Roson and Bruno Mars as Chat got on the paper. Chat sighed with gusto as he began dancing. Marinette noticed an element of house in his mainly boogaloo style today. But there was a certain hesitancy that she was unable to pin down. That was until a misplaced step sent him falling on his face.

Marinette immediately burst out laughing as Chat picked himself off the painting. "Are you ok?"

Chat grumbled and lumbered off the paper. "Aw! I got it on my hood!" Chat moaned as he looked at the black garment.

Marinette figured this was as good a time as any to pull out her gift for Chat. She opened her bag and pulled out the garment for him to see.

"Feel free to wreck that one," she told him, holding up another hood just like his own. "I made you a spare."

Chat's look was unintelligible as he reached for the hood. Marinette pulled it away. "You should probably wait until after to touch it, you know, paint? I'll just hold onto it until after."

"Good idea, my lady."

Le Dessinateur was observing the painting Chat had just created (or destroyed, depending on your opinion). Marinette noticed the distinct print of Chat's head as it had landed on the floor.

"Dude, you know what? You should call this painting?" Chat asked. "'I-Fell Tower'."

"Chat, no!"

"Consider it done," Le Dessinateur said as he put his signature in the bottom corner. "Chat put your handprint right here, please?"

Chat dipped his hand in the green paint again, and slapped his hand right next to Le Dessinateur's signature.

"Ladybug, you're up next." He moved the paper out of the way and laid down a fresh one. "Put the white paint on your arms and feet." Marinette did as she was told, and Le Dessinateur put down the red paint.

"Don't slip."

Marinette stuck her tongue out at Chat. A remix of "Stitches" by Shawn Mendes started playing over the speakers, and Marinette immediately started her usual house style. But she felt extremely daring dancing in the paint, even though it was very slippery. She started breaking style with an airfare and then a downrock. The paint was starting to turn a pink shade by the time she was done.

"What should we call this one?" she asked, wiping paint off her face.

"'Portrait of a Lady'?" Le Dessinateur suggested.

"I like that."

"Same here." He signed this one too. Marinette put her handprint next to his signature, and he pulled the paper away to dry. He then pulled an even larger sheet of paper over, and began pouring both black and red paint on it. "If you would please, refresh the paint on your arms and feet." Chat and Marinette did as they were told. An unidentifiable hip-hop song started playing as the two of them stepped onto their respected colors.

Chat and Marinette started dancing, but it was different this time than the times they had danced for Doubles Night. They both danced to imprint everything about themselves and their relationship into the paper. Chat reached for her, and she pushed away. When they were finished, they were thoroughly covered in paint.

"Hey," said Chat, wrapping an arm around her shoulder as he held his phone up to take a selfie. Marinette smiled a wide smile. "I'll send it to you, what's your number?"

"Nice try, kitty." Marinette pulled her own phone out and took a picture of herself and Chat, this time with her arm wrapped around his shoulders.

"I'm thinking we should call this one-"

"Miraculous!" Marinette insisted. "Call it Miraculous."

"Perfect." He signed it, and Chat and Marinette both put their hand prints on the paper. "Thanks again so much guys! I can't ever repay you for what you've done."

"It was our pleasure," Marinette said goodheartedly.

"Just happy to do my  _art_." Chat looked mildly pleased with himself for saying this. Marinette just rolled her eyes.

Le Dessinateur gave them towels to wipe off the excess paint from their body, but this did little to clean them off entirely.

"Aren't there showers here at Miraculous?"

"Indeed there are, my Lady. I'll show you."

"Le Dessinateur, when is my mural going to be done?"

"Next week if all goes well, I promise."

"Thanks so much, it was nice seeing you again." Marinette followed Chat with her bag as they left the studio.

Chat led her to the back of the club into the locker rooms, and then through an unmarked door. There were five showers in a row along the wall. Each of the showers were extremely long and had two curtained off areas. The first was for changing before getting in the shower; the second had the shower head and was for actually showering. She handed the hood to him before picking the first one. She drew the curtain, and peeked as Chat went into his own shower. She didn't think he was a perv, but that didn't mean she was about to shower without checking to make sure he wasn't watching.

Instead of stripping completely, Marinette took the ties out of her signature pigtails and her bra came off her body (she didn't bring a second one). She jumped into the shower with her shirt and pants still on. She used the soap provided to wash her hair and clothes off. The paint came off easier because it was fresher, but it would still stain, most likely. She laughed to herself when she realized the garbled noise from two stalls over was Chat signing.

" _Caught in a street fight/you need a life line!/Go on and use me/I'll be your Bruce Lee!_ " Chat sang in a less than beautiful tone.

"Now I see why your family dances instead of sings!" Marinette called out.

"Hey, now, I'll have you know what we A- Noirs have a long history of-"

"What, howling at the moon?"

" _Meow_ -ch. You are so much more mean to me than  _meow_ -st people, my lady."

"Somebody's gotta be."

She stopped her water and moved to the first chamber to change. She pulled her wet clothes off, dried herself off with a towel, and put a new set of clothes on. She had a new pair of loose black sweat pants and a red and black polka-dotted crop-top. She tied her hair up in a loose bun, and pulled out her red paint. Using a compact she smeared the red paint over her eyes and forehead. She checked her phone for the time. It was 7, Miraculous was already open, but she and Chat didn't have to be there for Dance Off until 11:30.

She grabbed her wet clothes and shoved them into a plastic bag. She pulled the curtain aside, and saw Chat sitting across the room on a bench, facing away from her. At the sound of the curtain moving, he turned to look back at her.

"Thanks for the hood," he said, fingering the fabric. "It's really nice."

"I made something else too." She reached into her bag to root around.

Chat's eyes lit up and he turned around. She pulled out the black strip of fabric with a bell sewed on.

"It- it's a collar."

Chat's entire face lit up, but then he looked at her with a suggestive smile. "I didn't realize you were into that, my lady."

Marinette's face turned red. "Well, now I'm gonna keep it."

Chat's snatched it out of her hand and used the velcro fasten it around his neck. He started playing with the bell with a childish look on his face. "So cool!"

"Yeah, now we'll know you're coming from a mile away."

Chat looked up at her with the biggest smile Marinette had ever seen. Her heart gave a very happy jump, and Marinette wondered how she got on before she had a friend like him.

"We gotta tell them today," she said, and both of their smiles died on their faces.

Chat swallowed. "What if we don't win the competition?"

Marinette shook her head. "That's not an option," she said. "We have to win."

"We don't even know if they'll agree to dance with us."

"They will."

"You don't know that though."

"Well, we're going to figure out today, now aren't we?"

Chat sighed and scratched his head. "You think we can get some dinner here at this time?"

Marinette pursed her lips and shrugged. "I dunno."

Chat stood, slipping his hands into his pockets. "Wanna go get some food?"

She nodded, following him out of the shower room.

* * *

They had a good meal, and were laughing when they made their way into the locker rooms of Miraculous. They're laughter automatically died when they saw Plagg and Tikki standing in the locker room, evidently speaking to the rest of the dancers.

"Chat, Ladybug," Plagg said. "Nice of you to join us."

"You guys won't believe it!" Timebreaker stood as she spoke. "They're gonna close Miraculous."

"We know," Chat said, looking at the ground. "They already told us."

"Now, I know this is a hard pill to swallow for everyone, but-" Tikki started.

"Tikki, if I may," Marinette interrupted. "I think I have a solution."

All the dancers visibly perked up at this comment.

Tikki shook her head. "No, Ladybug, there is no discussion about this."

"Just hear me out, please." Marinette pulled a poster out of her bag and held it up for everyone to see. "The mayor is inviting any and all break dancing troops to come and compete. There's a reward of 75,000 Euros for the winning troop. If we got together, practiced a routine, and won, we could donate the money to keeping Miraculous open."

The dancers all looked around at each other, whispering to each other.

"When is it?" M. Pigeon asked.

"In three months," Marinette replied.

"If you are interested in joining, meet Ladybug and I outside Miraculous tomorrow at noon. The first rehearsal is then," Chat announced.

Plagg and Tikki looked like they were about speak, but they were interrupted.

"The first dancers are to come out now," said a staff member, looking into the locker room. The dancers started getting ready for their turn. Tikki walked over to Ladybug and Chat, Plagg hot on her heels.

"Tikki, we're just trying to-" Marinette protested.

Tikki huffed. "I can't stop you from entering the tournament or giving the prize money away, but I can warn you that if you don't win, you will have given us all false hope."

Marinette felt the pang of rejection and her eyes started watering. Tikki laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Take care, Ladybug," she said very gently. She and Plagg left to disappear behind the "Private Personnel Only" door.

"I'm up next," Chat said, gesturing over his shoulder to the exit of the club. "You'll probably be up soon."

"Thanks, good luck."

"Thanks, god knows I'll need it."

"Any chance I'll see you out there?"

"If not in the Pit then in the crowd. Good luck, Ladybug." Chat turned and walked out the door.

While she was waiting for her time to be called, she tried to brainstorm ideas for a routine for the competition. She realized after the third rejected idea that there would be no way to come up with a good idea until she knew how many people were going to participate.

"Ladybug, it's time!"

She stood and left for the dance floor. The lights and the cheers for her filled her with determination, and she was ready to crush whomever she was facing today. A path was cleared for her to enter the pit, and she stepped down into it. She doubled back in surprise when she realized whom she was facing. She had a black crop-top with red polka-dots, red sweatpants, and black paint over her eyes. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a high pony-tail, and her blue eyes flashed with determination.

"This week's final battle is between Ladybug and Anti-bug!" the Bubbler announced.

"Sorry, Ladybug," Anti-bug said condescendingly. "I love your style, but I have to be the best."

"We'll see about that."

"Treasure" by Bruno Mars started playing. Marinette started her go-to house style. Anti-bug followed it up with a similar style, and Marinette had to purse her lips in thought of her next move. She would have to up-the-ante.

As soon as it was her turn, Marinette immediately switched her style to a breaking style, she spun on the floor and jumped into the air. Anti-bug's eyes were wide as Marinette finished. She attempted to copy Marinette's style, but it was clumsy and forced.

The battle was won for Marinette when Anti-bug missed her step, catching her foot on her leg, and toppled to the ground.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is really just to tie some things together. I wanted Anti-Bug to show up for my own reasons. I didn't want her to be a part of the Miraculous dancers however, and that will be explained in later chapters.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette comes clean to Adrien...for the most part.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter jumps a little bit time wise, but the story needs to progress.  
> This last week has been literal Hell you guys and every time I got an email saying this fic got kudos or a comment, I cried real, manly tears. Thank you so much for taking the time to do that.

Marinette forced herself to wake up the next Saturday morning. The past week had been non-stop going, and she had really wanted a day to sleep in. Today was obviously not going to be that day. She got dressed in her gray and pink sweat pants and her Princess shirt, grabbed her duffle bag, and grabbed a croissant for breakfast. She kissed her parents goodbye, promising to come back to help at the bakery in the afternoon.

Alya was already there at the Academy when Marinette arrived at the room Chloe had booked for the break dancing troop. She came in red faced because Adrien, who arrived the same time she did, held the door open for her to go in first. Alya smirked as Marinette came to stand next to her best friend, still red faced.

"Hey, Marinette," Adrien said, and Marinette turned an even darker shade of red as she turned around. "Why'd you run off yesterday? Did I say something wrong?"

"Oh- uh, n- no, you didn't say anything wrong. You're perfect!" Marinetti's face immediate went from red to white in an instant. "I meant- uh, well. I just had to run to do some things- is all, yes, that's it."

Adrien shrugged. "Whatever you say. So long as nothing was hurt, except maybe my pride."

Marinette laughed. Adrien moved on to speak to the other members.

"'You're perfect'?" Alya repeated. "Girl, you really need to get your priorities in order."

Marinette laughed nervously, scratching the back of his head. It was almost 10:15, and Chloe and Sabrina had not shown up to lead the rehearsal. Adrien nervously made his way to the front and got the group's attention.

"Um, I figure we may as well start, um." He looked very uncomfortable. "Since Chloe essentially put me in charge of picking people for the team, so I'm here to say that you all made it, good job."

A pleasant murmur rose up from the dancers.

"Now, though it's going to be a group routine, we're all going to need partners. We're split pretty evenly between men and women and so if you could pair up with the opposite gender, that'll be great."

The dancers started pairing up. Alya immediate pushed Marinette towards Adrien so that she would trip. Adrien leaned forwards to help steady Marinette, not noticing what Alya had done.

"Do you have a partner, Marinette?" he asked her with a small smile.

"Uh- uh, n- no, I don't I guess."

"You wanna be mine?" He leaned away from her.

 _I've always wanted to be yours._  "Y- yes, sure."

"That's great." He turned to the rest of the group. "Who doesn't-"

But before Adrien could finish, the door flew open and Chloe (with Sabrina closely behind her) burst into the room.

"We are going to destroy those Miraculous assholes!" she yelled to the group. A silence fell over the room as they stared at Chloe.

"What are you talking about, Chloe?" Kim asked.

"I was at that club last night, and that lead dancer, Ladybug, tripped me on the dance floor."

"What?"

"No way!"

"Ladybug would never do that!"

Everyone's reaction was, for the most part, negative. Marinette kept her mouth shut, but her jaw clenched. So it had been Chloe she'd faced yesterday.  _I have to be the best_ , is what she had said. That made a lot of sense now.

"That didn't-!" Adrien's reaction was almost violent, but he immediately calmed down. "I mean, are you sure that's what happened, Chloe?"

"Positive! And they're competing in Daddy's competition, so we can crush them once and for all." Sabrina was nodding at everything Chloe said emphatically.

"Ohhhkay," Adrien said slowly. "But for now, we've been picking partners for the routine. You said boy/girl, right?"

Chloe's face changed from angry to happy. "I did indeed. So you're going to be my partner, right?" She clung to Adrien's arm. Adrien shook her off and backed up a step.

"Actually, Marinette is already my partner." Chloe's eyes widened and then narrowed at Marinette. "But these two guys don't have partners." Kim and another guy in Marinette's ballet class stepped forwards.

"But Adrikins-!"

"Kim's a much better dancer than me, Chloe, and he's a lot more available to practice with than me."

Kim crossed his arms over his chest, and everyone looked on as Chloe hesitated. She finally gave in and went to stand next to Kim.

"So we're going to put some music on and let you work with your partner a bit just as an icebreaker." Adrien turned on some music, and the couples turned to each other to dance.

"So, Marinette, now's your chance to show me what you learned at Doubles Night." Adrien smirked at her and Marinette blushed.

"Uh, I'm not that good…"

"Just go ahead and show me something. If you can't dance with me now, it's going to be really hard to dance in the competition." Marinette nodded. She did a very simple house routine for him, and he nodded. "Good, really good. Now, I'm gonna jump in, ok?"

Marinette nodded again, and Adrien started dancing with her. His style was a similar house style, and Marinette started to lose herself in the dance.

She should've known it was too good to last. Marinette felt something very distinct hit her foot, and she lost her balance. Adrien didn't seem to notice until she was already on the floor.

"Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it," he said as he offered her a hand to help her up.

"Someone tripped me!" Marinette insisted.

"Who?"

"I- I didn't see them, but they did, I know they did."

Adrien scratched the back of his neck. "Maybe we should stop for today," he announced. "It's already 11, so meet same time next week guys."

Everyone sighed and began packing up.

"Do you maybe want to meet outside of rehearsal to practice, Marinette?" Adrien asked her.

Every thump of Marinette's heart screamed "YES!", but her brain protested. She didn't need anyone to teach her how to to break dance, she was the best dancer at Miraculous! Well, Ladybug was, and she was Ladybug, so by extension, Marinette was the best.

"Marinette?" Adrien's voice snapped her out of her reverie. "It's fine if you don't, you seem to have the basics down."

"Uhh- a few lessons couldn't hurt."

"Great, I'll check my schedule and get back to you on when I'm free. Can I have your number?"

Marinette couldn't speak as she tried to formulate the numbers in her mind before she spoke them. "Uh- uh- sure." She gave him her number and he immediately texted her.

"Did you get it?" he asked, and she scrambled for her phone. The screen lit up with "Hey :P" on it.

"Y- yeah, I did."

"Great, I'll text you when I get my schedule. I gotta run though." He packed up his bag and started heading out the door. "See you on Monday, Marinette."

"Bye, A- Adrien."

Alya materialized next to Marinette as Adrien headed out the door. "You're getting better at speaking."

"He wants to meet with me outside of school, Alya." They started out of the room and headed out the front doors.

"Like a date?! Really?!"

"Well- n- no, not like a date-date."

"Well, it's either a date or its not, so what are you doing?"

"He's going to be showing me how to break dance."

"But you already know how to break dance." Alya kicked a rock on the sidewalk towards the Academy.

"But- he had to have been classically trained, I mean, he could show me the proper way to do it."

"Marinette, I think you managed to find your own way to do it 'properly' as you say." Alya used air quotes around "properly."

Marinette huffed. "What's your point, Alya? Do you think I shouldn't go?"

"No, I think you should go and show him what you can do, maybe teach him a thing or two?"

"Wha- why?"

"Because if you want to have a relationship with Adrien, you're going to have to tell him about Ladybug eventually, better now before he invests too much into lessons that you don't need."

"I'd rather just cancel."

"Then you're a) hiding from your problems, and b) giving up time spent alone with Adrien because you're scared."

"I'm not scared!"

"Prove it, you don't have to tell him you're Ladybug, just make it clear you know more about dancing than he thinks you do."

"What if he thinks I coerced him into spending time with him?"

"Just tell him you aren't sure if he's aware of how good you are and apologize for the inconvenience." They had nearly reached their favorite coffee shop at this point.

"Then I'll just sound like I'm bragging."

"Then show him how good you are. It's not bragging if it's the truth."

Alya opened the door of the coffee shop for Marinette. "You're going to be a very good journalist someday, Alya."

Alya shrugged. "It's a gift."

There was a different barista today than Nathanael. Marinette was hoping he would be at Miraculous at noon. They order their drinks to go and headed out to Marinette's home to change their clothes quickly.

After the Dance Off the night before, Marinette had asked Nino and Alya if they would dance with the rest of them in the competition. Both of them agreed, and were going to the rehearsal Chat had set up.

Both dressed, they headed out to Miraculous.

"Busy girls," Tom commented as the two girls sauntered out the door.

"I was too at their age," Sabine answered offhandedly.

Marinette and Alya were not the first to arrive. M. Pigeon, Le Dessinateur, Princess Fragrance, Reflekta, Stoneheart, and the Horrificator had already arrived before them.

"Hey guys," Alya greeted them. "Nice to see you all."

"I'm glad you all could come." Marinette looked around the street. "Did anyone hear when Chat Noir would be here?"

"My lady misses me already." Marinette rolled her eyes, not even having to turn around to know Chat Noir had his signature grin on. "Good thing I'm here,  _meow._ "

Marinette turned to face him. She was right about the smirk. "Do you have the key to Miraculous?"

Chat used his staff to stretch his muscles. "Let's wait a few more minutes for everyone to arrive."

Marinette squinted, but she listened. Soon Timebreaker, Dark Cupid, the Bubbler, Stormy Weather, the Puppeteer, Pixelator, Animan, SimonSayz, and even Kung Food all arrived. It was past noon, and Chat was satisfied with this group.

"Alright everyone, follow me." Chat led them down to a warehouse down the street from Miraculous. He pulled a key out of his bag and unlocked the door. "Ta-dah!" He held the door open and gestured with his arm into the open space. The warehouse was empty, and the dancers filed in one-by-one.

"How do you know we can dance here?" Marinette asked him.

Chat shrugged. "I rented it until the competition."

Marinette's jaw dropped. "But- Chat, that must've cost a lot of money!"

Chat waved his hand. "That's not an issue."

It was odd to think that Chat had a life outside of Miraculous. "But- this is too much."

"This is a drop in the ocean compared to what Miraculous has done for me. It's the least I can do."

"Alright, let's start!" Timebreaker yelled impatiently. "Ladybug, what do we do?"

Marinette blushed as everyone's eyes fell on her. "Alright, I was thinking we could do a mashup of a few songs, uh, Bubbler?"

"I got'chu!" the Bubbler said as he immediately pulled out his phone to look up songs. "Any preferences?"

"I trust your tastes. While he's doing that, lets get to work."

* * *

"What are you going to do when all of this is over?" Marinette asked. They were sitting on the floor of the warehouse. Everyone had already left, but neither Chat nor Marinette wanted to leave yet. Their rehearsal had been really productive.

Chat shrugged. "Go back to dancing at Miraculous."

"And what about after that? You can't do that forever."

"Watch me!" Chat joked. "No, but M. Pigeon and Animan have been dancing at Miraculous for years, I don't see why I can't do that."

"And…what if…it doesn't reopen? What will you do then?"

Chat smiled sadly, his eyes downcast. "I don't know. I mean, I'm going to school, I'll probably finish that. Probably sell my soul to a dancing company, just like my parents did."

"Don't say that, companies can be good."

"Not all of them. I don't want to blindly follow the steps of my father just because he tells me to, I want to carve my own path. Like you do."

Marinette's eyes widened. "M- me? I don't have a clue what I'm doing."

"Exactly." Chat leaned closer to her, his eyes wide. "You have no idea what you're doing tomorrow. You could be a success, you could fail."

"Gee, thanks."

"But either way, the future will be an adventure for you. My future was engraved in stone when my mom left."

"Is that what Miraculous is?" Marinette picked at her shoelaces as she spoke. "A rebellion?"

"A breath of fresh air." Chat leaned even closer. "And when I met you and saw you dance, I knew I couldn't live without you, Bugaboo."

Marinette smirked and pushed him back by the bridge of his nose. "I'm glad I met you, Chat. You've taught me a lot."

"I try. But what will you do when this is all over?"

"If Miraculous still stands, I'll dance for a little while longer, I think. But, honestly, dancing was always something I did for myself, I never wanted to be famous. I'd rather stick to costume design, I love that."

Chat fingered the end of his signature hood. "This is really nice, by the way. I can't thank you enough. And no one's going to forgive you for this." He jangled the bell around his neck to illustrate his point.

"Do you really think we'll win, Chat?" Marinette asked. "I heard that troops from other countries are going to be coming to compete. There's one from Italy for sure."

Chat sighed. "We will have to do our best. Either way, we will have tried."

Marinette checked her phone and sighed. "I have to leave, it's nearly two and I need to- well, I need to get home."

She and Chat stood. She was about to leave when Chat grabbed her arm. She looked back at him, and, for the first time, he looked at at loss for words.

"Yes, Chat?" Marinette asked.

"I- never mind, you know, you were really great today."

"Uh, thanks, I'll see you next Friday, Chat." Chat looked very forlorn at these words.

"So long." Chat dragged the "o" out in long. "But you're here right  _meow_."

Marinette rolled her eyes. "Your puns get more terrible the more time I spend with you."

"Awe, you really don't mean that, my lady. You're wounding this poor  _chaton_ 's heart."

"And your flirtation becomes more saccharine."

Chat pouted. "Someday, Bugaboo, someday you'll push me too hard, and you'll miss me when I'm gone."

"And I'll enjoy the solitude for it."

" _Meow_ ch, my lady!"

"Alright, I have to head out. I'll see you on Friday, Chat."

Marinette headed out the door. She knew Chat was watching her leave, but she didn't turn back to look.

* * *

For the next several weeks, Marinette felt as though she hardly had a moment to herself. With school, working at the bakery (she had upgraded to working every night she was free), dancing at Miraculous, and the two troops she was a part of, she barely had time to do anything. She hadn't designed anything in nearly a month, and her ballet dancing was beginning to suffer from the bare minimum practice.

She was honestly thinking of giving ballet up, and that worried her. She had been dancing ballet since before she had started school. Though it had always come easily, she had never been natural choice for lead ballerina. She had always loved dancing, but ballet was beginning to become more of a habit (or a chore) than a realistic pursuit.

The time was coming up to pick classes for the next semester, and she wasn't sure if she should enroll in the next ballet class. There were other classes available, such as ballroom or even country line-dancing (though, Marinette was sure that would unenjoyable to the extreme).

She pushed all of these thoughts to the back of her mind, where most things got put these days. Every week the competition grew closer, and Marinette became more and more worried about how the troop from Miraculous would fair. Her worry only fueled her to plan more and more on their routine. It was shaping up to be quite a show, and Marinette was gaining more and more confidence at every rehearsal.

Meanwhile at the troop from the Academy, Marinette was still Adrien's partner. They had tried to meet up to work on break dancing together, but everytime they got close, the plans fell through. A performance got knocked back, there was an emergency at the bakery, they got mixed up on the meeting times and places. The universe seemed to be keeping them apart, and it frustrated Marinette to no end.

Finally they were able to secure a date. A Tuesday after ballet, they would use one of the practice rooms.

She was nervous during the entire ballet class that day. She kept glancing over at Adrien, who paid her no mind. He had always been so good at ballet, Marinette almost felt like it was an insult that the rest of them be in the same class as him.

She had been thinking a lot about what Alya had said. She was planning on telling Adrien about her abilities with break dancing. Her nervousness was not treating her stomach well.

Finally the class ended, and, like clockwork, Chloe began hanging off of Adrien's arm. Marinette cautiously approached the two, not in the mood to incur Chloe's wrath.

"Marinette!" Adrien called, pushing past Chloe. "C'mon, we only have an hour for the practice room, so we had better make it count."

She followed him out of the room, Chloe's eyes burning a hole in her head as she left. They entered a practice room, and Adrien set his stuff down.

"I hope you don't mind that I'm not going to change into different clothing, Marinette."

"So- so long as you don't mind that I do the same."

Adrien smiled at her. "Of course not. Now, have you ever heard of boogaloo. It's a-"

"Yeah, I've heard of it."

"Oh! Great! Let me show you some basics."

"Actually, Adrien, I have to tell you something."

Adrien looked very confused. "What is it, Marinette?" His eyes went wide. "You're dropping out of the competition?"

"What? No. Um, actually, I- you might be under the impression- ah hell, I'm not a beginner break dancer, Adrien. I've been doing it for a few years."

Adrien looked mildly surprised and confused. "But then- why did you act like you didn't know much at our rehearsals?"

 _Because I was thunderstruck by your pure perfection,_  Marinette thought. "I'm not used to dancing in front of people," Marinette said.

Adrien still looked confused, but a smile crossed his perfect lips. "Don't feel nervous, we're in this together."

Marinette blushed and ducked her head.

"So c'mon, show me what you got, Marinette."

She and Adrien started dancing, and Marinette actually watched Adrien dancing. It was fun and carefree, playful even. So unlike his ballet. She did her best not to completely show her talent. Adrien had seen at least one Ladybug video, if not more, and she didn't want to give herself away.

They took a break half-way through the hour, and Adrien handed her a water bottle.

"Whew," he said, wiping his brow. "It's been so warm out lately. All I've been wanting to do is sleep."

"Sleep?" Marinette repeated.

Adrien shrugged. "Guess it's the cat in me."

Marinette blinked and drank her water. Such an odd thing to say.

"Are you going back to Miraculous on Friday?" Adrien asked.

Marinette nodded but then looked pensive. "I might, will- will you be there?"

Adrien shook his head. "Father has a review at a theater in Nice, and he asked that I attend."

"Oh, what of?"

Adrien seemed at a loss. "You- you know, I don't recall. He has so many of these that I can hardly keep track." He laughed a little too forcibly and drank his water bottle down. "Did- did you enjoy seeing Ladybug when you did go?"

Marinette thought her words through. "Uh, y- yeah, she's pretty good, but I don't think her heart's really in it."

Adrien balked. "Her heart is entirely in it! I mean, just the way she-"

"So you have seen her in person?" Marinette interrupted. Adrien blushed.

"Um, I went to see one of the Friday night Dance Off once." His green eyes clouded over. "She was amazing."

Marinette blushed and looked away, pretending to fiddle with her bag. What would Adrien say if he knew she was Ladybug?"

"But- but what about that Chat Noir?" Adrien asked suddenly with a smile, his blush gone.

"Umm, uh, he's alright."

"I'd think he's a little more than alright."

"You certainly have a lot of thoughts for someone who has only been to Miraculous a few times." Marinette could barely stop the words coming out of her mouth, and immediately clapped her hand over her mouth when she finished. Adrien looked shocked but then chuckled slightly.

"Adrien- I- I didn't mean-"

"No, no, you're right.  _I_  don't have much of a right to pass judgement on them."

"But- but, neither do I, I haven't been there much either."

Adrien gave her a half smile, and then stood. "We've only got about twenty minutes left, c'mon." He offered her a hand up, and she took it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will have Marichat and Ladrien, I promise


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Boys seemed to have a habit of getting a little ahead of themselves around Marinette.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for the well wishes, guys. My week is still pretty crap, but it's slowly getting better. Hope you enjoy this chapter...it's pretty juicy if I do say so myself.

They finished and Adrien said goodbye. Marinette still felt bad for snapping at him, but his smile assured her everything was alright.

She texted Alya to let her know she was done, and she started heading over to the coffee shop. Her phone buzzed as she walked in the door and she grabbed it out of her pocket.

Alya: Im gonna be a little while, girl. Le Dessinateur is selling his Chat and Ladybug paintings today, and I wanted to interview who bought it for the Ladyblog.

Marinette froze. She knew Le Dessinateur was going to sell the paintings, but he had never said when. She wanted to see who sold it. Marinette quickly ordered her drink, and texted Alya while she waited for it to be done.

Marinette: where? I wanna see

Alya took a moment to see it and respond. She texted Marinette with the address.

Alya: You should come as Ladybug!

Marinette's name was called and she grabbed her coffee. She raced out the door while she texted her reply.

Marinette: No time, I'll be there as soon as I can.

* * *

 

Marinette was impressed. The studio was a really nice place to hold an art auction. It was on one of the higher floors of a building, and overlooked la Seine as well as the rest of the city of Paris.

"Hey, you made it," Alya said as she made her way over to Marinette. She was wearing her Lady Wifi costume. "Just in time, c'mon and sit."

They sat in the seats in front of the auctioneers podium. Nino (dressed as the Bubbler) was also there and sat on Alya's other side. Marinette jumped when someone practically flew into the chair next to her. A person dressed in all black with messy blonde hair.

"Hey, princess," Chat whispered in her ear. "Nice to see you again."

Marinette could've screamed. Chat remembered her from her first night at Miraculous? Well, fuck.

"You remember me?" she whispered back.

"It's not every Friday someone faints from the mere thought of dancing with me." She could've slapped the smirk off his face and not felt the least bit bad about it. Her face was bright red and she covered her face.

"Don't feel bad, princess. A little kitty told me you've been practicing."

Marinette gasped audibly, but her mouth was covered by her hand. How did Chat know about her break dancing?

Alya kicked her foot. "Are you alright?"

"Y- yeah."

Alya made a face and looked at Chat. "Leave her alone, kitty cat, or I'll rip those stupid suspenders right off your furry ass."

Chat's eyes widened and scooted his chair away from the two women. Alya was referring to the green suspenders Chat had recently added to his all back ensemble, along with a shirt that had a green paw print on it. He let the suspenders hang off his pants as loops.

"Alright, let's get this show on the road." This turned their attention to the Auctioneer "The artist would like to say a few words before the auction starts.

Le Dessinateur stood at the podium and pulled out a few note cards. He cleared his throat and looked up. His eyes met Marinette's and his entire face turned as red as his hair.

"Someone's made an impression on him," Chat whispered in her ear. Marniette knocked his shoulder with her own and smiled at Le Dessinateur, nodding for him to go on.

"Uh- uh-, Bienvenue," Le Dessinateur started. "I would like to thank you all for coming to my auction. All of these pieces are originals. Most of them are my own, but a few I had help with-"

"That's me!" Chat whispered emphatically into Marinette's ear. "I helped out." Marinette ignored him.

"-And those will be indicated. I would like to thank all the dancers who helped." He read off a somewhat long list of dancers (including Chat Noir and Ladybug) before going on with his speech. "And, last but not least, I would like to thank Plagg and Tikki, the owners of Miraculous for, well, for everything. Thank you so much, guys." He clapped and everyone joined in. "I would also like to note that 80% of the proceeds is going to be donated to Miraculous. Please enjoy the auction."

Several pieces were auctioned off. Some spray paint, some water color, some acrylic, and so on. They all had a vibrant exclamation point in the corner to indicate that they were indeed Le Dessinateur's. There were pictures of dancers and of

The painting that was Marinette's favorite was called "Duo in Red." It was spray paint on canvas with a purple background, and a red silhouette of a two dancing figures. The woman's arm was planted firmly on the ground, holding her body upside down and her legs were stretched out wife. The mans was sliding in a downrock towards the woman. Marinette bid on it, but was outbid by someone else.

"Pity you couldn't have that one," Chat whispered. "It's quite beautiful."

"There are others," Marinette whispered back.

A few paintings later, Chat slouched in his seat. Marinette had been looking out the window at la Seine and had missed what the painting was. Chat's reaction jolted her attention and she looked towards the podium. Her jaw immediately dropped.

There was no mistaking Marinette as the subject of the painting (well, Ladybug at least). It was a long and narrow canvas that pictured Ladybug facing away from the painter, and looking back over her shoulder. The background was a dark blue, and Marinette's body was a silhouette of red with black spots.

"Hey, what's this one called?" Marinette whispered to Alya.

"'Red Beauty'," Alya whispered back. "You should bid on it, it's you!"

By now the bidding was in the several hundred Euros' range, and closely approaching a thousand. "I can't afford it."

Marinette looked over and saw Chat on his phone.

"Boring you, Kitty cat?" she whispered in his ear.

He shot her a look and then turned his sneer on the painting. "Asking us to help him paint is one thing, but painting her like- like that is a whole 'nother thing. Thank goodness Ladybug isn't here to see this."

Marinette wrinkled her nose. Was Chat jealous?

"Isn't he painting mural of m- of her for Miraculous?"

Chat scoffed. "Yeah, but that's different. Look at that picture, Marinette. Every line and curve was done purposefully."

"Would you rather he half-ass it?"

Chat shrugged. "Maybe."

The painting was bought by some big-wig in dark glasses, which perked Chat up. They started on the break dancing paintings then, and Marinette realized something.

"How do you know my name, Chat?" she whispered in his ear which made him freeze.

"Uh-, you're friend Alya told me that one night you visited Miraculous, yeah."

Marinette nodded, she guessed that made sense.

A few break dance paintings went and sold. Some by Le Dessinateur, some not. Finally, the last painting of the night was "Miraculous" by Chat and Ladybug. Marinette perked up. The red, white, black, and green recorded the relationship between the two of them, and Marinette teared up at the thought of it hanging in a stranger's home.

Chat had become more than just a dancer to her. The former champ had become a rock to stand on, a lighthouse in a storm. The pressure to lead the Miraculous dancers was so much work, and he was there for her every step of the way. She bit her lip to hold back the tears, and unconsciously overlapped her hand with Chat's next to her.

Chat lifted his head and looked at the girl on his elbow. His eyes widened when he saw her expression.

"Hey, it's almost over, but you can step out if you need a moment." He didn't ask why, he just tried to help her.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, sorry. I just- I really love art, Chat." She fanned herself with her hand and mentally kicked herself for the stupid comment. I really love art. What the hell did that even mean?

Chat bit his lip and looked away. "Ohhhkay, whatever you say." But he didn't move his hand under hers until she herself did first.

He immediately checked his phone. Marinette didn't mean to snoop, but she saw his lock screen. It was the picture of him and Ladybug after painting with Le Dessinateur. Chat's face was covered in black paint, his arm slung around Marinette's (well, Ladybug's) shoulders. Their smiles were wide and happy.

She looked away when he got a text, not wanting to pry.

"Miraculous" sold to the same big-wig who bought "Red Beauty" and the auction was over. Le Dessinateur came back up to the podium and thanked them all for coming. They adjourned and had h'ordeuvres.

Le Dessinateur almost immediately came over to where Marinette and her group were standing, and greeted them.

"I'm so glad you all could make it," he said, shaking their hands. When he reached Marinette's, he leaned down to give her a light peck on the knuckle. Marinette blushed and smiled at him. "Marinette, how did you know about the auction?"

Marinette looked at Alya, who shrugged.

"Uh- Lady Wifi told me," Marinette said awkwardly.

"I'm so glad you could come. The event could not have been more perfect with you there."

Chat huffed and crossed his arms. "Ladybug wasn't there," he muttered.

"That's true, she didn't," Le Dessinateur commented, brows furrowed. "I hope she got my invitation."

"I don't think she did," Alya piped up. "She never mentioned going, and she definitely would've come if she'd known." Alya kept her eye on Marinette the whole time.

"I'm sure she appreciates your hard work," Marinette assured Le Dessinateur, patting his arm. Le Dessinateur blushed again and rubbed the back of his neck.

"D- did you buy any of the at, Marinette?"

"Uh, no, unfortunately, they're all a bit out of my price range."

"Oh, well, I have a few pieces that I didn't put up for sale here if you like to see them. Maybe one of them will strike your fancy."

"I couldn't-"

"Come on, I'll show you." Le Dessinateur grabbed Marinette's hand and dragged her away from the group. Marinette locked eyes with Alya who was containing her laughter behind her hand. Nino just raised his glass to her in a toast, Chat crossed his arms and frowned as Marinette and Le Dessinateur walked away.

Le Dessinateur pulled Marinette into an adjacent room, and flipped on the lights.

"Tell me if you'd like one," he said, letting go of her hand.

Marinette inspected the paintings. Most of them were spray paintings, but a few were break dancing.

"Why didn't you put them up for sale?" she asked him as she inspected a spray painting with words on it.

"I was advised to cut a few for the sake of time. I'll most likely have another auction in a few months so I'll try to sell them off then."

Marinette moved on to the next painting. "Is it true that you're donating 80% of the proceeds to Plagg and Tikki for Miraculous?"

"Yes, it would have been all of it…but, well…"

"Hey, we artists gotta eat too."

"S- so, you're an artist too?"

Marinette shrugged. "I dabble, I prefer costume design myself. How much for-" She turned with a painting in hand and jumped when she realized how close Le Dessinateur was. She could feel his breath, and there was a certain dreamy look in his eyes that made Marinette's stomach flip.

"I- I have a confession to make, Marinette," Le Dessinateur said. "Did you see my painting, 'Red Beauty'?"

Marinette nodded. "It was one of my favorites."

"It's of Ladybug, you know, that Miraculous dancer. But I- I didn't base it off of her." He looked down as he spoke. "I based it off of you, Marinette." He looked right into her eyes. The two blues clashed, and Marinette had to let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"Uh- uh thank you…?"

"You're my muse, Marinette. I've waited so long to-"

"Le Dessinateur, please, I-" Marinette dropped the painting and tried to make her way to the door.

Le Dessinateur grabbed her arm. "Wait! Did I come on too strong? Damn, I know I should've asked you out to dinner before admitting it. Please, can we just start over?"

"Le Dessinateur, I-" Marinette tried to pull her arm away.

Le Dessinateur's grip tightened. "I'm free tonight if you want to go someplace. We can go anywhere, I've made quite a bit of money off of this auction. Even if it's only 20%."

"Nathanael! Let me-" She was dragging him to the door by her arm. The muscles in her bicep were screaming, but her adrenaline was kicking in from her fight-or-flight instincts.

"Please, Marinette, I-"

"Nathanael, I'm Ladybug!" Marinette yelled at him, which immediately caused him to let her go. Marinette rubbed her arm and moved to the door.

Le Dessinateur looked like his entire world had been turned on his head. "But- but, you- what?"

Marinette groaned. She definitely should not have said that. Honestly, it was the only thing she could think of to get him to let go of her arm. "I loved the auction. I didn't have time to change into my costume after ballet, but I wanted to see the auction." It felt so good to be able to be real with someone. No lies and half-truths. No allusions and inside jokes.

"So, when Ladybug and Chat came to dance…"

Marinette nodded. "That was me. It's been me the whole time. Look, Nath, I like you, you're a nice guy. But I don't think we'd be good together in a relationship."

"H- how do you know?"

Marinette shrugged. "I don't really understand why you like me, to be honest. There's nothing special about me."

Le Dessinateur's eyes lit up. "You're amazing, and beautiful. And now you're Ladybug, the best dancer at Miraculous! You're perfect."

Marinette winced. "That's why we wouldn't be good together. I'm not perfect, I'm just Marinette."

Le Dessinateur's eyes fell. "I- I'm sorry to have come on so strong."

"It's alright, trust me. I know what it's like to have a crush."

"Is it Chat Noir? I've seen the way he looks at you, and the way you two talk to each other."

Marinette forced out a laugh. "Chat? No, he's just a flirt. And we're friends, really good friends."

Le Dessinateur grumbled, and sniffled. Marinette bit her lip. She did not expect any of this to happen while she was in here. "Look, Le Dessinateur, I know you don't owe me anything, but, if you would please keep my secret, I would be eternally grateful."

Le Dessinateur's entire face perked up. "Does Chat know about you?"

Marinette shook her head. "Especially Chat, don't tell him. That's for me to tell him…someday." Never.

"I will on one condition."

Marinette flinched. Fuck, he could do whatever he wanted and she would do it (almost). "What is it?"

"Will you model as Ladybug for me? I want some reference for the mural, I'm having trouble with it."

Marinette thought to herself, then nodded. That sounded like a fair trade. "Alright, I'll model for you for one day, and one day only, and you don't tell anyone who I am." Marinette extended her hand to shake and Le Dessinateur shook her hand.

"Deal."

"Alright, thank you for letting me see your art, I'm leaving now."

"Are you free Thursday for the session?"

Marinette thought for a moment. "Sure, after my ballet class. Meet me over by the ballet classroom, I'll reserve a practice room." Marinette opened the door and rushed out before Le Dessinateur could make any more suggestions.

"Hey," Alya said. "Did you end up buying any art? You guys were in there a while."

"Uh, no, uh, Lady Wifi, I'm going to head back home. I'll see you at school tomorrow. Bye Bubbler, bye Chat." Marinette spoke while looking at the the door she came out of. Le Dessinateur emerged and she tried not to run out of the room.

"Bye Marinette," Alya called out to her.

* * *

 Marinette wondered if she was ever going to have a ballet class where she didn't drift off in thought and was called out by the teacher. It was Thursday, and she couldn't wait to have the whole modeling session with Le Dessinateur done with. Every day the competition drew closer, and Marinette had to keep planning the next rehearsal. Not to mention remembering what she had already learned at the Academy troop's rehearsal, plus schoolwork, plus trying to keep up with being the top dancer at Miraculous.

Though she and the rest of the dancers had refused payment from Plagg and Tikki for their dancing, they still danced every Friday without fail. Marinette was sure Miraculous was still going to close even with their refusal for money, and Le Dessinateur's donation from the auction. All the more reason to win the competition, she guessed.

Finally, the class ended, and Marinette attempted to zoom off to change into her Ladybug costume.

"Marinette!" Adrien called after her.

Marinette's feet skidded to a halt and she turned to look at Adrien. The one day she couldn't afford to miss a second was the day Adrien decided to notice her. Perfect.

"When are you free again to practice?"

Marinette thought back, but the only thing she could think of was Le Dessinateur waiting for her, Marinette's secret burning on his tongue as he looked around. "Uh, uh, I'll have to get back to you, Adrien. I'll text you, but right now, I don't have time to talk. Kaythanksbye." She rushed out of the room, went to the bathroom. She made sure no one was in there, and she changed. She left the bathroom undetected, and met Nathanael (dressed as Le Dessinateur) over by where her class had just gotten out.

"Good to see you, Ladybug," Le Dessinateur said to her with a wink.

Marinette rolled her eyes. "Alright, the room I requested is right over here." She took him into a room and set her bag down. He pulled a portable easel out of his bag as well as a pad of paper and several pencils, pens, and paints.

Marinette rolled her shoulders and her back, trying to loosen up her tense muscles. "What do you want me to do?"

Le Dessinateur shrugged. "Turn on some music and dance a little."

Marinette did so, pausing mid dance when Le Dessinateur asked that she do so.

They had been at it for nearly fifteen minutes when the door swung open and they both looked to see. Marinette turned pure red as Adrien Agreste himself looked into the room.

"S- sorry!" he coughed out. "Wrong room." He looked in awe at Marinette and she looked away from him, trying to hide her blush.

"Hey, could you help us a minute?" Le Dessinateur asked.

No! "I'm sure he's busy, Le Dessinateur," Marinette huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

Adrien's look of awe turned into unease. "What's going on here? Is he pressuring you?" Adrien spoke directly to Marinette with squinted eyes.

"What happens between artist and muse is strictly confidential," Le Dessinateur argued, still sketching.

"Look, buddy." Adrien came to stand next to Le Dessinateur, and grabbed his paper. "You think you can just force Ladybug to come here so you can live out your lurid fantasies is sick and wrong. I don't care if she is your muse, you can't make her do anything."

"As a matter of fact-"

Marinette had to stop this before the cat was let out of the bag. "Le Dessinateur asked me to model for some reference sketches for him, A- uh, sir. I'm doing this on my own."

Adrien's whole face turned red and Le Dessinateur yanked his note pad out of his hands. "O- oh, alright then, I'll just go- um, yeah."

"Hold on," Le Dessinateur said, grabbing Adrien's arm. "While you're here, you may as well be of some use. Stand next to Ladybug."

Adrien turned redder and looked at Marinette, but did as Le Dessinateur asked.

"Alright, now Ladybug, rest your arm on his shoulders. No, not like that, bend your arm and lean the elbow- yeah, like that. Now hold it."

Marinette wasn't sure who was redder, her or Adrien. He swallowed, but kept his eyes trained forwards.

"And done," Le Dessinateur as he finished with a flourish.

"Are we done?" Marinette asked.

"Sure, we can be." He nodded to Marinette as he packed up his easel. "Pleasure doing business with you, my Lady."

Adrien's brow furrowed and he took a step towards Le Dessinateur. "Hey, you can't-" His countenance immediately changed. "I mean, how do you know you can call her that?"

Le Dessinateur rolled his eyes. "You just don't get it, my friend. Goodbye, Ladybug, have a nice life."

"You too, Le Dessinateur, you too," Marinette replied as Le Dessinateur left the room.

There was an awkward silence as the two of them stood there. "Um, thanks for helping," Ladybug said. "You can use this room if you want." She started to reach for her stuff and Adrien grabbed her arm.

"I'm Adrien Agreste, you may have heard of me," he said.

Marinette nodded. "Yes, I have. It's nice to meet you. I'm Ladybug"

"Will you-" Adrien's face was bright red again. "Um, will you dance with me?"

"D- dance?"

"You don't if you don't want to. Man, I must sound just like-"

"I'd love to!" Adrien's face lit up when he looked back at her. Marinette beamed back at him. Being Ladybug sure had a way of stripping away her insecurities.

"G- great, lemme pick a song." He grabbed his phone and started flipping through his music. He turned on Ella Henderson's "Ghost", not even bothering to hook it up to speakers. He waited for her to start and she took the lead.

His hands were on her hands, her arms, her hips, her waist. And with every touch she lost herself a little bit more to the music. Her heart hammered in her chest, but she ignored it.

They ended with their faces extremely close together. Marinette couldn't help but think how she had been this close to Chat at the end of Doubles Night. Adrien blinked once, twice. Then he closed his eyes and leaned into her. Marinette's eyes fluttered close and she braced for the kiss. He smelled musky and woody, just like Chat did.

Marinette gasped and stepped out of his grip. She turned her back to him, and covered her mouth.

"Thanks for the dance," she said as she grabbed her bag and ran out of the room.

The thought that had torn her away had been simple: What would Adrien think if he knew it was me? Marinett's eyes were opened to the situation clearly after that. If and when Adrien and she actually started dating, she would tell him she was Ladybug. And if they kissed now, he would most certainly think she used her alternate persona to get close to him. That wasn't what Ladybug was for, and she knew it.

The other thing was that Adrien didn't know Ladybug other than an internet sensation. If she encouraged him as Ladybug, he may never love Marinette. It was imperative that he fall in love with Marinette before Ladybug. Though her heart ached from leaving him alone in the the practice room, she knew in her gut that this was the right thing to do.

She called Alya as soon as she got home.

"Alya," she whispered into the phone, tears fighting at the corners of her eyes. She wiped her eyes and saw red on the tips of her fingers. She hadn't even realized that she'd walked all the way home in her Ladybug costume.

"What is it, girl?"

"I- Adrien and I-" Her voice wavered and she bit her lip.

"Marinette, are you crying?"

"Adrien almost kissed me."

"What?! That's great! How? Tell me-"

"No, it's not great! I was- I was dressed as Ladybug at the time." The tears flowed freely. "He tried to kiss Ladybug."

Alya was silent for a moment. "Take a shower. I'll be over in fifteen minutes with ice cream. We can hash this out further."

Alya truly was the best friend any girl could ask for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated to all you nerds who want them to kiss while they're dancing. I see you, I see your shipper trash showing, and I raise you angst. You're welcome.  
> Anyway, you guys seemed to like the idea of an Adrien POV fic, and I'm seriously thinking about it. (So it's very strong in the "maybe" category right now)  
> We're coming up on the end soon you guys, maybe 5-7 more chapters (don't quote me on it, though.) It may seem like a long time, but I'm writing 2 chapters ahead of you guys, so it's more like 3 chapters for me.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien has reached a breaking point. No mom, dad's a nightmare, can't keep his mouth shut around his friends, and the girl he loves has rejected him twice now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot of you guys realized what Chat was doing on his phone during the auction. Thanks guys, you totally ruined the surprise that was going to be revealed. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go back and reread the auction part of the last chapter, it's really not that well hidden. It was supposed to be a continuity thing more than anything. ORRRRRRRRRRRR you could wait until the end when I reveal what Chat was doing...*wink, wink*  
> I went to see P!ATD yesterday and I have discovered that post-concert depression is a real thing, and I have it. The tears are so real, it was so beautiful.  
> I felt more like Chat's perspective was better suited for the latter half of this chapter, so it changes after the second line-break from Marinette to Adrien. Just so it's not confusing for anyone.

Marinette couldn't look at Adrien during the next ballet class. He didn't even notice her, which hurt even more (despite the fact that he had no reason to notice Marinette). Mme. Bustier was trying to prepare them for the end of the year showcase they had every year at the Academy. Marinette was very much in the mood to skip it, but she knew she wouldn't. She wasn't the type to bail when people were depending on her.

The showcase was not going to be a big deal. It was just going to be a short demonstration of their ballet, and then they would be done. After all, there were a ton other classes to go and so it had to be very short.

When they were done for the day, Marinette bit her lip and forced herself to step up to Adrien. Alya supported her in trying to make Adrien fall in love with the real Marinette. Or some cheesy idea like that. So she would have to speak with him at some point, and now was as good as time as any.

"Uh, Adrien?" Marinette cautiously said to the blonde who turned back to her. "Sorry I haven't texted you about practicing, I've just been so busy."

Adrien smiled and waved her off, her heart did a few backflips for good measure. "No problem, Marinette. I've been pretty busy too."

"I'm free on Monday after ballet if that's alright with you."

Adrien thought for a moment and then nodded. "That sounds good. I'll see you then, Marinette."

"Se- see you then." Marinette, face red, left the class room and headed out of the room. Alya had a date with Nino before heading over to Miraculous, and so Marinette was left alone. She should really make some more friends. Alix, Juleka, Rose, and Mylene were all super nice and they never hung out at all. She would have to spend more time with them outside of Academy dance rehearsals.

For the first time in several weeks, Marinette was truly alone. For the past few weeks, when she hadn't been with Alya, she had been at Miraculous or with Chat. She went to the only place she really felt comfortable going to, her little coffee shop.

Lucky for her Nathanael was not the barista today, and she didn't have to face that nightmare today.

"Marinette!" Marinette turned her head to see who had called her name and her heart jumped into her throat. Adrien was sitting at a table having coffee, on his own. He was waving at her. She waved back.

"How can I help you today?" asked the barista.

"Uh- caramel mocha with whole milk, please."

"Name for the cup?"

"Marinette."

Marinette paid for her drink and moved aside. She stood beside the counter awkwardly. She felt a tap her shoulder and jumped.

"Hey, come sit with me while you're waiting," Adrien said.

Marinette gulped and followed him back to his table. Adrien had his laptop out and typed something really quick before closing it. "There, sorry, I had to email my professor really quick."

"It- it's fine." Marinette cautiously sat across from Adrien, and folded her hands on the table. Adrien looked into her eyes and she couldn't help but think how he'd looked the day before, so close to her, eyes half closed. She lowered her head away.

"Is something wrong…?" Adrien asked.

"No, nothing." Well, there was something besides Adrien's love for Ladybug. "Just- well, Alya's on a date with Nino, and- and I- um, well-"

Adrien held up his hand. "Say no more, I got'chu. You're happy for her, but you don't have anyone to hang out with."

Marinette nodded. "Y- yeah."

Adrien's grin was goodhearted and friendly. "Good thing I'm here to keep you company."

Her name was called and she got up to get her coffee. She held the cup in her hand as the barista walked away, but she didn't move back to the table. She had two options. 1) Go back to sitting with Adrien. 2) Leave. Neither was really better than the other.

"Miss, can I help you with something?" the barista asked her.

Marinette blinked and realized she was just standing at the counter stupidly. "Uh- uh, no, sorry. I just spaced out, sorry." She turned around and headed back to the table. It wouldn't be hard to just take a turn and walk out the door, but she sat down across from Adrien instead.

"So what are you up to tonight?" Adrien asked her, sipping from his drink. He had a yellow smoothie with a pink straw.

Marinette shrugged. "I'm not quite sure. My parents could always use help at the bakery, I'll probably end up just doing that."

Adrien nodded. "Or you could head out to Miraculous, go see Ladybug and Chat Noir." Marinette twitched when he said her alter ego's name.

"Maybe. Uh- I thought you were headed to Nice tonight."

Adrien nodded, and looked at his watch. "I have to be there at 9, my plane leaves at 6:30, I've got time to chill for a bit. Hang out with a friend."

Marinette blushed when he called her his friend. "Thanks. It's great to hang out with you too."

Adrien smiled. "Are you going to be taking ballet next year?"

Marinette twisted her lips in thought. "I'm not entirely sure, to be honest. How about you?"

Adrien's eyes turned sad and he gave a half-smile. "Yeah, I will be, but I think I will have to start taking the advanced classes next year."

"That's great, you're really good."

"Thanks."

"You don't look too happy about it."

Adrien shrugged. "I have to love ballet, I've been doing it too long to not."

Marinette looked down. "Why don't you…quit?"

Adrien sighed, and shrugged. "It's a long and complicated story."

"I'd love to hear it."

"It's also sad."

"I have tissues." Marinette pulled a plastic bag full of tissues out of her bag. This was enough to make Adrien crack a smile and laugh, making Marinette's heart sing.

"You just have those in your bag?" Adrien gestured to the bag of tissues.

"You never know." She shrugged.

Adrien sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "Dad wanted me to do ballet, so I did ballet."

"What about your mom, wasn't she a big hip hop dancer?"

"Yeah, but- I haven't heard from her since she and my dad split."

"Oh…" Marinette swallowed and her face turned red. "I- I'm sorry, Adrien. I shouldn't have pried."

Adrien waved his hand. "You didn't mean anything by it. So that's it, Dad does ballet, and so do I."

"He directs mostly though, doesn't he?"

Adrien nodded.

"Would you want to get into that?"

Adrien shook his head. "I've been around ballerinas most of my life, I can't stand them."

"But if you directed, you would get to tell them what to do?"

Adrien made a face and shook is head. "If I could get away with never doing ballet again- well, I'd rather not talk about it."

Marinette was at a loss. She desperately wanted to scream at him.  _If it makes you unhappy, don't do it!_ But it wasn't her place to say such things, so she kept quiet and drank her coffee.

"Am I- Am I keeping you?" Adrien asked awkwardly.

Marinette nearly spit her coffee all over his face at the question. "N- no, not at all. I mean, it's Friday night and I have nothing to do."

"You should head on down to Miraculous and check out Ladybug and Chat Noir for me."

Marinette bit her lip. "Yeah, um, I don't know. Clubs aren't really my scene."

"But it's a break dancing club, and we've already established that you're better than you have led on to be."

Marinette shrugged. "I do it for fun, to relax."

Adrien nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, this girl I-" Adrien stopped himself suddenly and colored. "No, you don't wanna hear that."

"Sure I do."

"N- no, I shouldn't have said anything. Just forget it."

Marinette was silent and sipped on her coffee some more. Adrien looked slightly guilty and he grabbed his bag. He stood and looked down at Marinette. "I hate to run, but I gotta start getting ready to head over to Nice."

Marinette felt her spirits crash, but smiled. "Alright, I'll see you on Monday, tell me how it goes."

"So you're skipping out on Saturday then?"

Marinette blinked and then smiled again. "S- sorry, I'm out of it, I'll see you tomorrow."

Adrien smiled at her and waved as he walked out the door.

Marinette blew her bangs out of her face in a sigh and slouched in her seat. "That could've gone better," she whispered to herself.

* * *

Alya was already at Miraculous when Marinette arrived that evening, so she headed to the side door of the club without any company. She and the Gorilla had their brief encounter, and she entered the locker room. As soon as she entered a barrage of dancers pounced on her with questions. Had she thought about this or that? What if these moves could work? Or these?

"Hey, hey, give the lady some room?" A black figure parted the crowd and came to stand next to Marinette. "All your questions will be answered tomorrow at rehearsal."

Marinette breathed easy when the crowd dispersed. Chat slung his arm over Marinette's shoulders and walked her over to their lockers. Marinette brushed his arm off and opened her locker. Chat leaned on the lockers next to her, but didn't say anything.

"You're pretty quiet, Chat-" Marinette turned to see Chat looking at her intensely. She blinked and turned from his gaze. "What's up?"

Chat was still silent until Marinette met his eyes once more. Then he blinked and shook his head as if he was in a trance.

"Sorry, just- it's been a weird week. I missed you."

Marinette smiled and snorted. "I saw you less than a week ago."

"Too long, my lady. I nearly forgot how beautiful you are."

"And I nearly forgot how sappy you are."

"But not quite." Chat winked as he spoke. His signature smirk was back and Marinette knew he was alright. She began making sure she was ready to dance. Tying her shoes and making sure her hair was up in her pigtails.

"Doubles Night is Wednesday." Chat spoke, but Marinette didn't look at him.

"I heard something about that." Marinette opened her compact and checked the paint around her eyes, still not looking at Chat.

"Still wanna be my partner?"

"I doubt you could get out of it so easily." Marinette finally looked at Chat with her own smirk, mirth playing at her eyes. Chat grinned back.

"Any excuse to see you, I'm down with."

Marinette rolled her eyes and put her compact away. "I'll never understand why you find your pretend flirtation so funny, Chat." She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and saw he was no longer smiling. She panicked a little. "What? Did I say something wrong?"

"No, no!" Chat said emphatically. "Sorry, like I said, it's been a weird week."

* * *

Adrien wasn't entire sure what he was thinking on that Thursday. He truly had gotten the wrong practice room, that wasn't a lie. But as soon as he saw his lady with that- that artist, a side of himself he tried to keep hidden came out.

And then he had the nerve to say it: "my lady." Adrien could've hit him over the head with his easel and not felt at all sorry. But then Le Dessinateur left, and Adrien was sure he was missing something.

He should've known he was pushing it by asking Ladybug to dance with him, but- well, what would it matter if she connected his style with Chat's? If she just happened to notice some similarities between the two of them, and came to an assumption that was not wrong, what was the harm? So long as it stayed between the two of them, he was willing to give everything to her.

He knew he had it bad during their first Doubles Night. When she'd jumped into the pit, that was the moment he was willing to profess his identity to the entirety of Miraculous and not care. Though, he'd thought she was attractive from the moment she challenged him, it was her landing in the pit that made him lose his heart (and his head along with it).

But she had made it clear she did not want to reveal her identity to him, and he was willing to respect that. And he certainly did not want to screw up what little footing he had regarding her attentions by revealing his own identity. If he did, she would probably feel pressured, and that was the last thing he wanted. Their situation was easier without knowing each other's identities. Regardless, Adrien still had spent many a night awake thinking of what she had told him during Doubles Night: "Adrien Agreste…he's one of the greatest guys I've met…"

This complicated things. They knew each other outside of Miraculous? Well at least, she knew him, well enough to be confident that he was a great guy (so not very well at all). Had he ever spoken with her? How many times had he walked past her and not even known it? Had she ever been in his house? …In his bedroom?

Adrien tried to be careful not to let those thoughts go too far.

He'd had his fair share of lovers and girlfriends (mostly other dancers), but…was it possible one of them could be his new paramour?

No, it couldn't be. Adrien wasn't the brightest bulb in the bunch, but he would at least like to consider himself not completely oblivious. If Ladybug was someone he knew well, he would've guessed by now…he hoped.

And then he had to go and be a completely fucking idiot and almost admit that he knew Ladybug to Marinette. Just- she had said the same thing that Ladybug said: "I do it for fun, to relax." It was bad enough that he'd tweeted that video, it was pure luck that no one asked how he may have known the girl in the video. Adrien Agreste did not know Ladybug outside of the video he had tweeted. And now, with how things had gone on Thursday, it was unlikely he ever would.

And there she was, the love of his 20 year old life, standing at her locker, looking over her costumes. The last time he'd seen her was the day before, and he'd almost kissed her. Their lips had been so close he could've sworn she'd felt the stubble on his chin from not shaving that day.

She had rejected both Chat Noir and Adrien. Only he could be rejected twice by the same woman as different people.

"You're pretty quiet, Chat. What's up?"

He wanted to apologize for Thursday. For being jealous, for trying to kiss her. But he was Chat, not Adrien.

He realized he'd been staring and jolted up.

"Sorry, just- it's been a weird week. I missed you." Though he meant that figuratively, the literal meaning was true as well. He had missed her, missed the opportunity to have her.

Their banter was light today, and he buried his feelings to tease her (his favorite pastime). That is, buried them until she brought them all back.

"I'll never understand why you find your pretend flirtation so funny, Chat."

She thought his flirting wasn't for real, that he was just flirting to be funny. If only she knew. The disappointment must've been evident on his face because she immediately inquired.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"No, no," Chat said emphatically. "Sorry, like I said, it's been a weird week."

"Well, you had better get your head together, we're going to be starting soon and I'd hate to see you trip over your own feet again, kitty cat."

Adrien smiled at her, but didn't say anything. He just felt down today. First Ladybug rejected him, and then he practically ran away from Marinette at the coffee shop today. Not to mention the fact that Nino and Alya were getting pretty serious now, which was fantastic for the two of them. But, like he had said to Marinette, he didn't have anyone to hang out with.

"Chat, you're up next!"

Adrien lifted his eyes to the doorway and nodded. He turned to Ladybug and gave her a half smile. She looked at him warily.

"You don't seem yourself, Chat," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. "I hope everything's ok."

He took her hand and laid a kiss on her knuckles. "Everything is perfect when you're here, Bugaboo." He grabbed his staff and headed out the door.

He nodded at Nino who was up on his platform doing what he did best. Well, now it was Adrien's turn to show them what he did best. He was facing M. Pigeon today.

"Alright, Miraculous, this one's dedicated to my man, Chat Noir, who's facing M. Pigeon tonight. May you get your ass handed to you my friend," the Bubbler announced and "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls started playing over the speakers. Adrien had half a mind to flip Nino off, but instead focused on M. Pigeon dancing. He was on his A-game today, but Adrien wasn't about to let his bad week ruin what he loved doing.

He traded his signature boogaloo and breaking style for a voguing style that made the crowd scream his name. If Nino was going to try and be funny with this song, Adrien may as well not back down. M. Pigeon was defeated, and then Dark Cupid and finally Timebreaker. Of the three he'd faced so far, he felt the worst for beating Timebreaker. She had been there just as long as he had, and this was the closest she'd ever come to having a shot at any champ (whether it be Chat, Ladybug, or any of the past winners).

Finally Ladybug came out to face Chat. This would be their third battle, and Chat wasn't prepared. Every week he debated as to whether he should really try to beat her, or let her win. He loved dancing with her, rather than against her. But, as the Bubbler constantly reminded them, it was winner-take-all during the Friday night Dance Off.

When Ladybug descended into the pit, he couldn't help but remember yesterday and how she had flat out rejected him at the Academy. It was like seeing her with fresh eyes, and he felt humiliated. If she wasn't going to give Chat or Adrien a chance, why should he go easier on her? Maybe it was time to find out who was really the best dancer at Miraculous.

"It's getting serious on the dance floor tonight, folks. Champ versus former champ, let's see who comes out on top." The Bubbler started with his own remix of "Where Are U Now?" by Justin Bieber and Ladybug began her signature house style. But instead of going back to boogaloo, he started a bounce style he'd been secretly practicing. He saw her eyes widen with his erratic movements, and then determination flashed in her eyes. He stepped back to invite her to take her own turn, and she regarded him before starting.

It was time for Chat's eyes to widen when, instead of going back to her usual house style, she started popping. It may have even had traces of krumping in it, which she had told Chat she did not like doing at all. She finished and the song did as well. Nino wasted no time in putting "One That I Want" by Marvelus Fame on. It was clear there was no winner from the last round.

A winner was not declared in the next round either, and the crowd was growing restless. The music stopped and Adrien turned to see two figures had joined Nino by the turntables, Plagg and Tikki. The spoke to Nino who nodded and put the mic back to his mouth.

"There hasn't been a battle like this in Miraculous for nearly a decade, folks. This next battle will be the tie-breaker, no matter what," the Bubbler announced.

Adrien breathed out of his mouth heavily. He lifted his shirt to his brow to wipe the sweat from his brow. If he wasn't fired up and frustrated, he would've taken pleasure in the douwnflick of Ladybug's eyes to his stomach. But his blood was pumping in his ears and he was determined to get out his frustrations from the week out, and Ladybug was the only person who had ever posed a challenge to him.

"Let's slow it down to let the dancers really show their stuff." The Bubbler started playing "Funky Town" by Lipps Inc.

This song was perfect for boogaloo, and Adrien went back to his signature style. Ladybug also went back to her house style, and Adrien tried to utilize his training to prove he was the better dancer. To no avail, just as the song was ending, and Ladybug was taking her last turn, she flipped on her head and did a headspin, freezing in a pike.

Adrien knew, right then and there, he was beat. The crowd cheered and rushed forwards to lift Ladybug on their shoulders. He pushed his way out of the crowd and towards the locker rooms. He was angrier than he'd ever been before. After he entered the locker room, he sat stewing on the benches in front of the lockers. His back was towards the door and every fiber of his being was screaming for him to slam his body into the lockers until they fell over.

"Chat…? Are you alright?" Adrien flinched at the voice, but didn't look back at Ladybug.

"Go away, Ladybug." He did not want to fight with her, he did not want her to know how much her rejection had hurt.

She sat on the bench next to his, a little ways away. "Are you mad at me for beating you?"

Adrien didn't answer, he stared straight ahead at the lockers.

"Is it this past week? What happened?"

"I said leave me alone!" Chat snapped at her, and Ladybug flinched back. He saw the fear in her eyes and bit his lip, squeezing his eyes closed to fight back the tears. "You wouldn't understand." Great, now his voice was cracking. This was not his greatest moment. He looked back at the lockers and leaned his head against them.

"Try me." She scooted closer to him on her bench.

 _You don't understand how great my feelings are, you don't understand that you hurt me._ "It's not Chat who has a problem…" he settled on saying after a moment.

"Oh…oh…So, it's- you, who you really are that is."

"Chat is who I really am." Adrien met her eyes. "It's the other guy who wears a mask."

"Regardless, he's having some problems. Tell me about them."

"You wouldn't understand."

Ladybug snorted. "I have another identity too, Chat. I don't wear this crop top to go grocery shopping."

"Bet you'd look cute if you did." The comment just slipped out, because that's what Chat was like.

She smiled at this, but waved her hand. "What's up with this other guy?"

"Have you ever been rejected by the person you admire most?"

As soon as he said this, her entire demeanor changed, and Chat knew two things. The first: she knew exactly what he was talking about. The second: there was definitely someone else for her.

"Yeah." Her voice was sad and her eyes were downcast. "Today, in fact."

"What happened?"

"I- I got a little too nosy into his personal business, and- well, I wouldn't say he ran away but he sure didn't walk either."

"He doesn't know what's good for him then."

Ladybug shook her head. "This is about you though. This  _person_ whom you admire, what did they do?"

Chat looked away from her. This was his chance to come clean to her. "I'm losing her, I can feel it. Every time we interact, I feel her slip further through my finger-tips."

"On purpose?"

Chat shook his head. "She would never see me that way. She's made it clear."

"She's an idiot then, you're great, Chat."

"She's not that bad, and I'm not nearly that great."

"You're my best friend, Chat." Her stare was too intense, too much, but Adrien couldn't look away.

"What about Lady Wifi?"

Ladybug giggled and Adrien's heart soared. "She doesn't get it."

"Doesn't get what?"

"That boogaloo is cool." Her knowing smile made Adrien groan.

"The Bubbler told you about our lessons then?"

"Yeah." She stood and held out a hand to Chat. "Partners?"

He took her hand and lifted himself up. "Best friends forever, Bugaboo."

She flicked the bell on his neck, and let go of his hand. "C'mon and hang out with Bubbler, Lady Wifi, and I."

Chat crossed his arms over his chest and screwed up his nose. "Are you  _kitten_ me? They  _meow_ -ke me sick."

"So you're going to leave me to be the third wheel?"

"Get your buddy, Le Dessinateur to go with you." He tried very hard to hide the jealousy in his voice. Chat wasn't supposed to know anything about what happened the day before.

"What's wrong with hanging out after the dances? You never do it."

After being caught leaving Miraculous once, Adrien didn't want to take his chances that someone would recognize him. But when he looked into Ladybug's big, blue, pleading eyes, he couldn't say no. He followed her out the door to hang out with Nino and Alya.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm glad a lot of you are understanding of Adrien's perspective, and I gotta thank you for that. Like the fic summary says, times are getting tough.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everybody seems to be watching Master Fu's videos nowadays.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has a lot of things that I felt needed to say before I start preparing for the end  
> If it's not clear, we start with Adrien's perspective and change back to Marinette after the first line break.

"What's up with you, man?" Nino asked Adrien. They were standing at the bar, Ladybug and Alya were chatting away. "You didn't seem yourself tonight."

Adrien looked over to Ladybug and then back at Nino. The events of Thursday were burning on his tongue, and he had to tell someone.

"Ladybug was at the Academy on Thursday, with Le Dessinateur." Adrien spoke in a low enough that the two girls didn't hear him.

"And?"

"I walked in on them."

Nino's eyes widened. "Do…I…wanna know what they were doing?"

Adrien rolled his eyes. "She was posing for his art, it seemed. He left soon after I got there."

"Ok, I sense there's something bigger coming."

"I asked her to dance with me."

Nino nodded in approval. "Should've told her you've literally spent every Friday for the past month or so dancing with her, but that's a step forwards."

Adrien huffed and gave Nino a look. Nino knew that Ladybug was not interested in sharing their identities. "That's not all."

"Ok, so?"

"I tried to kiss her, and she left."

Nino's mouth shut with a snap and he looked at Ladybug out of the corner of his eye. "That sucks man."

"Yeah, seeing her tonight was hard, and it was even worse that I couldn't tell her what was going on."

"Good thing I'm here then."

Adrien nodded and tapped Nino's shoulder with his fist. "You're the best, thanks for the song by the way."

Nino shrugged, pleased with himself. "I came across it while planning my set, and it just seemed so you my friend."

"What are you two gossiping about?" Lady Wifi demanded.

Nino turned to her and wrapped his arm around her middle. "We could ask you the same thing. You two just chatter away, and we were left to our own devices."

She ignored Nino and looked directly at Adrien. "Are you alright, Chat? You seemed angry earlier."

Adrien flashed her Chat's signature grin, and bowed his head. "I'm flattered you are worried about me, but don't worry. I'm  _feline_ alright."

Lady Wifi turned to Ladybug. "Does he always make cat p-"

"Yes." She didn't even have to finish in order for both Ladybug and Nino to both answer in the affirmative.

"That's awful."

"Hey, it doesn't bother me any if it bothers you, cats have nine lives, you know?"

"It would seem you used one of them tonight with how quickly you were dancing tonight," Ladybug answered. "Who knows how many you have left."

Adrien looked her up and down and slowly felt the last of his anger melt away. He couldn't be mad at her for not falling in love with Adrien. God knows he wouldn't have if he was a woman.

"I have plenty, don't you worry about me, Bugaboo." He winked and took pleasure in her smile as a result.

* * *

_SIX WEEKS 'TIL COMPETITION_

Alya's video of Chat Noir and Ladybug dancing that Friday did not need the son of a famous dancer to tweet it in order to go viral. It seemed to just explode on it's own. People were uploading their own videos, #LadyNoirFight was trending on twitter, the street dancing side of tumblr was going absolutely nuts.

"I think I may have an idea to quell the masses," Alya said as they were stretching. It was 10 am on Saturday and it was time for the Academy dance troop's rehearsal.

"What makes you think we want the masses quelled?" Marinette asked.

Alya's eyebrows rose. "You want to live in perpetual drama."

Marinette shrugged. "No, but what does it matter what they think? Chat and I are cool, we don't need to show other people we're cool."

"But you don't want to show up to the Miraculous troop today and have everyone questioning if they're leaders can even stand each other."

Marinette bit her lip. "I guess you have a poi-"

"Yeah, I do! Now, here's my idea. The video of just you dancing did so well that I think a video of you and Chat dancing might do well."

Marinette shrugged. "That might be a good idea."

"Hey, hey, how's it going, ladies?" Adrien asked Marinette and Alya as he sauntered over to put his stuff down.

Marinette blushed at his tone and didn't look at him.

"Pretty good, you're in a chipper mood, Adrien," Alya commented.

Adrien shrugged. "I had a good night last night."

"How was your dad's performance?" Marinette asked.

Adrien's expression faltered, but he covered it with a small smile. "It was good, it went well. I know Dad wasn't sure about the leads. The male lead was a real prima donna, I hear."

"Did he perform well?"

Adrien shrugged. "He was alright, the female lead was really good."

"Oh, that's good. I'm glad you had such a good time."

"I was in a bad mood when I went in, but it brightened my day afterwards."

"That's great."

They started rehearsing and were soon done. The competition was in a little over a month, and they were making good progress. As soon as they finished, Chloe latched onto Adrien's arm and began chatting his ear off. Marinette had half a mind to throw her to the floor, but Alya dragged her out of the room before she did so.

"C'mon, we gotta be at the warehouse in less than an hour and we need to change," she said, dragging Marinette by her arm.

They were walking to Marinette's parent's bakery when they passed by the coffee shop.

"You want some coffee?" Alya asked.

Marinette looked inside the window and saw a bright splotch of red hair behind the counter. "You can, I'll catch up with you at the warehouse."

"Nah, I don't want one that badly." Alya followed Marinette back to the bakery, where they both got changed.

"I'm gonna ask Chat if he'll dance with you for the video after rehearsal, is that cool with you?" Alya asked as they headed down the street.

"It's fine with me, so long as he's cool with it."

They made it to the warehouse early, and were the first ones there.

"Are you ever gonna participate in the Dance Off, Alya?"

Alya shrugged, straightening her black tank-top with the wifi symbol on the front. "I think if I was gonna, I would've already. That is, unless there's a drastic need to. I did Doubles Night, and I'm a part of this troop."

"Are you gonna do Doubles Night with Nino, again?"

Alya shrugged again. "I'll ask him if he wants to. Are you an Chat doing it?"

Marinette nodded.

"Then we'll be there to watch if we don't dance."

They waited a little longer for the other people in silence, soon they started filing in. The Horrificator and Stoneheart came in hand-in-hand as they always did, but the Horrificator came over to stand with Alya and Marinette.

"How's it going?" she asked, her bright pink make-up was a little disorientating to look directly at.

"Good, how about you, Horrificator?" Marinette asked.

"I'm fine, Stoneheart is too."

"Is your dad going to be here?" Alya asked.

"What?" Marinette asked and the other two girls looked at her.

"The Mime, he's Horrificator's dad," Alya explained.

"Oh, I didn't- I didn't know."

The Horrificator shrugged. "It's not like we don't tell anyone, but we don't shout it from the rooftops, if you get my drift. You know, in case we have to face each other. But that's how I got involved at Miraculous, I started when I was 16."

"That's pretty young." The youngest person dancing currently was the Puppeteer, who was 18.

"Yeah, I tried to start when I was 14, almost 15, but my dad asked that I wait until I was 16."

"So you've been dancing here for four years?" Marinette asked to clarify.

The Horrificator nodded.

"Have you even gotten to be champ?"

She shook her head. "No, but I've gotten pretty close. I like doing it because it's something to do with my dad, and Stoneheart, of course."

"And did you convince Stoneheart to join?" Alya asked.

"No, actually, we met here. And it turned out we go to the same school and everything, it was a fantastic coincidence."

Alya side-eyed Marinette who had turned to see Chat come through the door.

"That's crazy," Alya said to the Horrificator. "That has to be fate or something."

"I don't know about that, but we're happy together." Stoneheart had lumbered over and wrapped his arm around the Horrification's shoulders.

"Who is?" he asked her.

"We are dummy, we're gonna start soon, we'd better stretch."

"Awe, we already danced before we got here."

"Just to loosen up, c'mon." She took his hand and lead him over to a more secluded corner of the room.

Alya nudged Marinette's arm with her elbow and nodded at the couple who had just left. "Crazy how everything turned out for them."

Marinette nodded. "Yeah. It's turning out for you too, with Nino and everything."

"It'll turn out for you too, don't worry."

"I'm not." As Marinette spoke, Chat sauntered up to the two of them.

"Well, fancy seeing the two of you here," he said as he grinned at the two of them.

"You invited us, this is your warehouse," Marinette countered.

Chat shrugged. "Regardless."

Nino also showed up then, along with M. Pigeon, Timebreaker, and Dark Cupid. Nino made his way over to Alya and pecked her cheek in greeting.

"I got one for you, babe, are you ready?" he asked her.

"One what?" Alya asked, dumbstruck.

"You must be Lady Wifi, because I think we have a great connection." Nino's smile cracked his face in two and he was laughing by the end.

Alya's face was not impressed. Nino was barely holding it together, Marinette herself had to clamp her hand over he mouth to not giggle. Alya turned and looked at Chat, who's grin was equal parts amused and wicked.

"Did you give him that one?"

Chat's grin turned 100% wicked right then, and it was obvious he had. Marinette could not hold in her laughter anymore and soon the other three joined in. She wiped tears from her eyes and caught her breath.

"We'd better start, c'mon," she said and turned to the rest of the dancers to start rehearsal.

* * *

The newest video on the Ladyblog was titled: "Ladybug and Chat Noir Together Again"

Ladybug and Chat Noir were on screen, waiting for something.

"Dance you guys!" said a voice behind the camera.

"To what?" Ladybug asked.

"I got'chu, said another voice behind the camera, and "Adventure of a Lifetime" by Coldplay started playing overtop of the video.

Chat immediately started bouncing on the balls of his feet, knocking against Ladybug's shoulder. She pushed him back.

Jump cut.

The two of them were swaying together, facing each other. This soon escalated to full on dance moves. They danced very close together, their moves blending into the other's. They both had looks of contentment and concentration as they danced, moving across the floor with each other.

Finally the song ended and a jump cut to them pounding fists.

" _Bien joué,_ " they said in unison.

Jump cut, they were standing side-by-side looking at the camera now.

"Hey everyone, I'm Ladybug-"

"-And I'm Chat Noir."

"Thanks so much for watching this video and supporting the Ladyblog, which is run by my good friend, Lady Wifi."

"If you want to see us dancing in person, we'll be competing in the Miraculous Doubles Night this Wednesday at around 10 pm."

"We'd really appreciate it if you could come, and also if you could support Miraculous in anyway you can, the people have been really good to us, and we wouldn't be anywhere without them."

"And also a bunch of us from Miraculous are going to be competing at the Paris Break Dancing competition coming up in a little over a month now, so you'll be able to see all kinds of dancers, not just us, dancing in that."

"Again, thanks so much for watching guys."

"If you liked this video, go ahead and let us know, and maybe we'll do another one in the future."

They waved goodbye. Chat wrapped an arm around Ladybug's middle, but she moved it to her back, and the video ended.

* * *

Marinette felt like she blinked and it was Wednesday, and Doubles Night was upon them. She tried everyday to speak to Adrien, thinking it would only get better the more she did it. And she was right, slowly they were warming up to each other and she felt she could truly call him a friend. They talked about dancing troop, and he recommended a lot of break dancers she could look up on YouTube. She found this exceedingly helpful, and recognized a lot of the moves.

"Are you ready?" Chat was looking her in the eye and Marinette breathed in and out.

"Are you?" she asked.

"I was born ready, my lady."

The crowd around them was getting restless as the two of them stood side-by-side in the pit. The Gamer, who was a man of few words, was already starting the next song, "Die Young' by Ke$ha.

The crowds at Miraculous were unnaturally large tonight, and Marinette desperately hoped it was because of the video. Adrien had tweeted this video as well, but it barely needed any help to gain more popularity than any of the other videos on the Ladyblog.

Marinette felt as though she and Chat had reached a new level of closeness that Friday, and was extremely excited to dance with Chat for Doubles Night. She liked to dance with him better than against him. Every time she'd got into the pit and saw he was her opponent, she panicked a little more. She knew he was better than anyone else at Miraculous if he really tried, but she was never sure if he truly wasn't as good as her.

Marinette and Chat were quickly going through their opponents to once again make it to the top. Finally when they beat the last couple, Dark Cupid and Timebreaker, they were as giddy as could be. Marinette threw her arms around Chat's neck in a hug, and he spun her around. Marinette could barely contain her glee as she was spun around by Chat. Before she realized what she was doing, she had laid a tender kiss on Chat's cheek. Said patch of flesh turned from pink with exertion to red with embarrassment. She didn't look into his eyes, instead let the crowd hoist her up on their shoulders once again.

And as they carried the two of them to the bar, she glanced over at Chat to see him grinning with his own glee. His face was still red, and Marinette thought it was a good color on him.

They were deposited at the bar and a round of drinks was ordered in their honor. Several people came up to them and asked for their autographs. A lot of people said they were there because of the video, and expressed interest in seeing more videos from them. Finally she and Chat headed back to the locker room for some privacy.

"Chat?" she asked, packing up her bag.

"Yes, Ladybug?" he asked, looking into her eyes wistfully.

"Do you watch break dancers on YouTube?"

He deflated a little with the question, and looked a little confused. "Yeah…?"

"I just- I noticed when you were dancing that your moves look a lot like this one break dancing YouTuber I watch."

"Oh, who?"

"Uh, his name is Master Fu."

Chat perked up. "Oh yeah, he's so cool. I've watched all his videos, I think."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I- I'm surprised you know who he is, he's not very well known." Chat scratched the back of his neck and looked down.

"A friend of mine recommended him."

"Ah, ok."

A silence fell between them as they finished packing up. Marinette started heading for the door to meet up with Alya when Chat called out to her.

"Uh, Ladybug?"

Marinette froze, and turned. He was red faced again, and Marinette desperately hoped he wouldn't mention the kiss.

"Good- good job tonight," he said.

Marinette smiled and held out her fist. " _Bien joué?_ "

He smiled back and pounded her fist with his. " _Bien joué_. Pound it."

"I'll see you Friday, Chat." Marinette turned and headed out the door.

"See you Friday, my lady."

* * *

"Ok, when you say you kissed Chat, what does that mean?" Alya asked.

They were at the coffee shop. Nathanael wasn't working today, which Marinette was very happy about. After the debacle with Adrien the week before, Marinette had explained the entire situation from why Adrien was there, to what happened between her and Le Dessinateur at the auction. Alya had been disappointed that Nathanael had been greedy, but she had insisted it was probably out of humiliation from being rejected.

"I kissed his cheek," Marinette replied, her face in her hands. "Why did I do that, Alya?"

"Ask your alternate self."

Marinette looked at her. "I like my alternate self, but I don't trust her."

"Did he mention the kiss at all?"

"No."

"How do you know he even notice?"

"He turned bright red."

"So? He had to have been exhausted, I don't understand how you two can dance so much and still be standing afterwards."

"Maybe you're right, maybe he didn't notice."

"Do you like Chat as more than a friend?"

Alarm bells immediately went on in Marinette's head as she struggled to find a way to not emphatically deny this idea.

"N- no, no way, we're partners, we're friends. We've got a competition to win."

"Alright, alright, I believe you." She then smiled and giggled a little.

"What?" Marinette was wary of why she might be so happy.

"No romance, only dance." She then started laughing and Marinette joined in with her. This is what Marinette missed the most while Alya was with Nino, just being 20-something girls together.

"What are you two laughing about?" They both turned to see the newcomer and Marinete colored immediately. Adrien Agreste stood next to them, a smoothie in his hand. Alya's eyes lit up and she kicked Marinette's shin.

"Hey, Adrien, how's it going?" she asked.

He nodded and smiled. "It's going great, mind if I join the two of you?"

"Well, I've gotta run to meet Nino, but you can sit with Marinette." Alya stood and shouldered her bag.

"Oh, well, I'll see you later then." Adrien sat down and Alya patted Marinette's arm as she headed out the door. Alya seemed to do that a lot, push Adrien towards Marinette and then disappear.

"How are you, Marinette?" Adrien asked.

"I'm good, how are you?"

"Good." He suddenly slapped his head and groaned. "I forgot to thank Alya for showing me this place."

Marinette was sipping her drink and almost spit it in Adrien's face. "Alya showed you here?"

Adrien nodded. "Yeah, my usual coffee shop closed a few weeks ago, and so I was telling Nino about how bummed I was since I loved that place. Alya was there and took us to this place."

"Oh, uh- do you like it?"

"Yeah, I love the smoothies here, and the coffee's good too."

"And it's close to the Academy."

Adrien nodded. "Always a perk. So you gotta thank her for me, I really like this place."

Marinette nodded. "Yeah, we found this place back in our first year."

They elapsed into silence and sipped their drinks.

"So, about five weeks to competition."

"Y- yeah, it's coming up."

"Do you think we're ready?"

Marinette nodded. "I think we're going to do really good."

"I- I don't know how to ask you this but-"

"What is it Adrien?"

"I don't think I'm going to have a lot of time to practice with you between rehearsals. What with finals coming up in a few weeks and my dad-"

Marinette held up her hand to stop him and she nodded calmly. "I understand, it's fine, we can play it by ear, if you'd like. I've been getting really busy too. I feel like I haven't been able to just sit and take a breath for a long time."

Adrien nodded. "Totally, I feel the same way. Like it's just go, go, go, and you just fall asleep as soon as your head hits the pillow."

"Exactly."

Adrien's phone went off and he grabbed it to look at it. He made a face and started immediately texting. He stopped halfway through and sheepishly looked up at Marinette.

"Sorry, I don't mean to be rude, I bought some art pieces recently and my landlord is getting upset because I apparently 'didn't tell him' I was moving it in today. Even though I emailed him twice, once to let him know about it, and then again to let him know it was happening today." He snorted, continued his text, and sent it. "Sometimes I just can't stand my landlord, you know?"

Marinette colored and swallowed. "I- I mean, well- No, I don't know, I still live with my parents."

Adrien looked surprised. "Wow, really?"

Marinette rubbed the back of her neck and felt her face grow hotter. "I know how it sounds, 20 years old and-"

"I think it's fantastic."

"R- really?"

Adrien nodded. "I moved out as soon as I could, I couldn't stand to live in my dad's house any longer than I had to. If your parents are willing to put up with you, you should stay as long as you're able."

Marinette shrugged. "They still have rules. Don't have wild parties, don't eat everything in the store, etc."

"Oh yeah, because your parents have a bakery, don't they."

"Yeah, they do."

"My dad's birthday is coming up in a few months, do your parents bake and decorate cakes?"

Marinette nodded emphatically. "Oh yeah, totally, that's like half of their business."

"I will totally look you guys up when it comes time."

"They'll appreciate it, I'm sure."

Adrien checked his phone for the time and sighed. "I'd better get over to my apartment to check on the movers, just to make sure my landlord doesn't toss them out on their ear, taking the art with them."

"You sound so fancy, 'pieces of art'."

Adrien shrugged. "I liked them, so I bought them." He stood and shouldered his backpack, and she followed him.

"Do you want me to walk you home?" he asked.

Marinette balked, and stammered. "Um, s- sure."

They walked in silence for a bit before Adrien asked her about the Master Fu videos he had recommended for her. They chatted about the different videos until they arrived at the bakery.

"Thanks so much, Adrien," Marinette said, her hand on the door handle.

"You're welcome, I'll see you tomorrow."

"You too."

Marinette turned and headed into the bakery.

"Who's that, honey?" her mom asked.

Marinette looked back to see Adrien headed down the street. "Oh, uh, he's a guy in my ballet class."

"It was nice of him to walk you here."

"Yeah it was." Marinette's eyes were glued to the white blur of Adrien's shirt as it disappeared out of sight.

Her mom pressed a tray of eclairs into her hands. "Could you put these back in the fridge, dear?"

Marinette did as her mom said, tearing her eyes from the window.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SABINE MAKES HER DEBUT!  
> And we got LadyNoir action yessssss! So satisfying, especially riddled with angst, you know


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are getting intense as competition day approaches.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a lot of conflict in this chapter and I'm not sure how I feel about it. Thanks again for all the support.

Alya and Nino's relationship was getting increasingly serious as the weeks went on. Which was fine for Marinette, she got to see Adrien a lot more that way. Slowly she was breaking out of her shell of nervousness and could form real sentences around him.

But as she got more familiar with him, she realized there was something…off about their relationship. Like there was something missing. It occurred to her what that might be while visiting the zoo with the him, Alya, and Nino. Adrien was standing outside the panther cage and staring inside with pure and utter awe.

"It's so graceful, so beautiful," he whispered to himself.

The reverence in his voice made her think back to what Marinette had dubbed "the Practice Room Incident™", and she realized what was missing from her relationship with Adrien. Ladybug had transformed into another aspect of her personality, and she was hiding it from Adrien.

But what would he say? What would he do?

And then there was Chat. Marinette couldn't be 100% sure that Chat was referring to her when he spoke of the woman he admired most back in the locker room after "the Chat Freakout Incident™", but that couldn't stop her from wondering. Chat had never violated her boundaries. She did not want to reveal their identities, and he didn't try to push too hard to break this rule. She wanted to be his friend, he (maybe) wanted to be something more.

And even  _if_ she did like Chat back (which, she totally did not, in anyway), it would not be a good idea. They were partners, first and foremost, they had a competition to win. And she didn't know who Chat really was anyway, life was less complicated that way.

And anyway, there was a chance the girl he was referring to was not her. She'd seen the way girls fawned over him during the Dance Off and Doubles Night. Even some of the other female dancers had looked over at him when he was stretching or bending over for whatever reason. She told herself the gurgling feeling in her gut was not jealousy, and left it at that.

At least every Saturday she got to dance with Adrien. They worked their part of the routine for the Academy troop, and Marinette could not be giddier during their routine. It was a lot of couples work, so Adrien was close enough that she could feel his breath on her skin. It was the best feeling Marinette could've ever had.

The competition was getting closer, and Marinette was slowly going more and more insane. The Miraculous troop was doing really well. Their routine was a parody of the Dance Off, but with choreographed dances instead of improv that was typical for Friday Nights at Miraculous. Nino had put together a mash up of several different pop, hip-hop, rap, and techno (thanks to the Gamer's influence) music. Marinette was happy it was finally coming together, and was anxious to have the whole debacle over, whether they win or not.

Finals came and went, and Marinette was still desperately trying to pull together her life before the competition. At least with school over, she had more time to plan as well as work in the bakery with her parents. She had expressed to them the idea of moving out, and they said they would support her whether she stayed or left. Marinette looked for apartments in the few moments she had to herself.

* * *

_ONE WEEK 'TIL COMPETITION_

As soon as Marinette entered Miraculous for Friday Night Dance Off, she was informed by one of the employees that Plagg and Tikki wanted to speak with her, and that Chat was already there. She walked through the "Private Personnel Only" door, and headed into Plagg and Tikki's office.

"Ah, Ladybug, take a seat," Tikki said. She sat next to Chat in front of the two desks. Plagg was on his computer, again looking at pictures of cheese not too subtly, but Tikki stared the two of them straight on with a sad look in her eyes.

"What's going on?" Marinette asked.

Tikki sighed. "Next week will be the last week Miraculous will be able to open."

Marinette's entire body froze. She was not surprised. They had gotten so close, just a week 'til competition, but it just wasn't good enough this time around. "I understand. Thank you for telling us."

"Tell them about attendance," Plagg piped up, not looking away from the computer.

"What about attendance?" Chat asked.

Tikki glared at Plagg, but didn't say anything to him. "We've been able to keep Miraculous open for nearly a month longer because of the funds from donations as well as the attendance spike from your videos."

"But it still isn't enough," Marinette finished.

"No, we'd need a miracle at this point."

"Well, you're gonna get one," Chat said. "We're going to win that competition."

Marinette shook her head. "We're going to do our best," she clarified.

"That's all we can hope for," Tikki said, and sighed. "Thank you for all you've done. The two of you certainly have kept up morale if nothing else."

They said their goodbyes and headed back into the locker rooms. Chat looked upset once more, as he sat on the bench in front of the lockers. "This just can't be the end, it just can't be." Marinette had noticed in the last few weeks, Chat had been more and more agitated, especially when it came to the subject of Miraculous. Marinette desperately hoped he was still taking care of himself so that he would be in shape for the actual competition.

"It ain't over 'til its over," Marinette told him as she retied her shoes.

"If Miraculous closes, I don't know what I'm going to do."

Marinette shrugged. "There must be other clubs."

"But they might not have you there, my lady."

Marinette leaned against the lockers, and sighed not meeting Chat's eyes. She glanced around the locker room to see if anyone was listening. Most of the dancers had already gone out for their turn dancing, so it was mostly empty to begin with. "I don't honestly know if I'm going to continue break dancing after this is over, Chat. Whether we win are no."

"What-?!" Chat's outburst drew the attention of the small amount of people were there to begin with. He quieted down and they turned away. "What do you mean you won't be dancing after this?" he whispered.

"I didn't say I would definitely not be dancing, I just don't know if I will. If Miraculous does close, I most definitely will not. But if it doesn't, but I'm not sure if I'll come back."

Chat was at a loss for words, he looked like he was drowning in disbelief. "But-"

"You wouldn't understand, Chat. I can barely keep up with all this break dancing  _and_  school. Exams were a few weeks ago, and I was lucky to scrape by with a passing grade in most of them."

"Yeah, but it's the summer isn't it?"

"Yeah, but I only have a few years at school left, I think. Then I'll get a job hopefully. I don't want to do this for the rest of my life."

"But you're the best! You're better than me! And you're just going to give it up?"

"I didn't say that I was going to give it up! And even if I was going to give it up, you should be supportive of me, if you were really my friend!"

They were lucky that all of the dancers had left by now, because they were getting louder now.

"I am your friend! And  _as a friend_ , I don't want you to stop doing something that you love just because it can be difficult sometimes!"

"You mean like your dad does for you?!"

Chat's face was red with anger at this point, and Marinette's face was very hot as well. He had stood and they practically stood nose-to-noses, yelling at each other.

"I can't believe you have the nerve to-"

"Chat, you're up!" the Miraculous employee called.

"I'm coming!" Chat yelled as he looked back to Marinette. "We'll talk about this after."

"We most certainly will!" Marinette affirmed and Chat walked out the door.

Marinette sat down the bench, still fuming from the exchange. When it came time for her to be called up, she was still extremely worked up. She breathed in a breath as she walked to the pit. She had to calm down if she was going to win, and she wasn't about to lose because of Chat. Indeed, it was Timebreaker she had to face. Though, she was glad it wasn't Chat, he had to have been upset in order to let her beat him. Unless he didn't want to face her either, which Marinette couldn't blame him for.

Timebreaker was fully focused on the dance battle, and Marinette was desperately trying to clear her thoughts from her brain. After two songs, Marinette was the victor, and Timebreaker was almost ready to rip her head off. The dancer had tried so hard to get to this spot, and Marinette had shut her down without being fully focused.

Everyone was cheering, but Marinette was only focused on one person. Chat stood with his arms crossed over his chest, not meeting her eyes. As the crowds dispersed, she came up to stand with him. Her anger had dissipated, but she was sure it would resurge if Chat said the wrong thing.

He scratched the back of his head. "Congrats on winning, you officially beat my streak."

Marinette rolled her eyes. "I did a couple of weeks ago."

Chat shrugged. "Still, congrats."

They were silent for a moment.

"Look, Ladybug-" Chat started and then bit his lip.

"I think we're just both on edge from the competition," Marinette stated before he could say anything else.

Chat nodded. "It still doesn't excuse-"

Marinette held up her hand. "We should just let this topic lie until after the competition, alright?"

Chat nodded, still looking pretty upset.

"Have you been sleeping and eating well, Chat?"

Chat looked up, surprised. "Y- yeah…? Why do you ask?"

Marinette shrugged. "You don't look so good."

"It's the competition, I try to sleep and all I can think about is what if we don't win."

"You'll need your sleep if we're going to win."

"You're right. I could use a cat nap."

Marinette laughed, which made Chat's face brighten. They started heading back to the locker rooms to grab their bags. Chat was telling Marinette about another break dancing YouTuber he'd been watching when Marinette looked over to the other side of the room. She groaned and started walking faster to the locker rooms.

"What is it?" Chat asked as he tried to keep up with her.

"Some girl I know from school, I don't want her to see me," Marinette answered, the door to the locker rooms in sight.

"Which girl?"

"The blonde one over there next to the redhead."

Chat made a noise and quickened his pace, overtaking Marinette. "You could've said it was Chloe Bourgeois," he said.

"You know her?"

"I guess, not really, but what I do know, I'm not a big fan of."

Marinette honestly thought her and Chat's friendship was made in the stars. They both loved break dancing, they both loved Master Fu, and they both hated Chloe Bourgeois.

"I knew she'd been here before, but I've only ever seen her once or twice," Marinette said as they entered the locker room.

"Regardless, let's find Wifi and Bubbler and leave. Maybe go out to a bar or something." Chat shouldered his duffle-bag and headed over to the door.

"What bar is going to accept us looking like this?"

Chat turned to face her, but didn't meet her eyes. "What if we- don't…look like this?" He looked at her then, and Marinette looked away.

"Chat I-"

"What are you so afraid of? I won't tell anyone, if anything, I should be more worried about you knowing who I am, then the other way around."

"How do you know that?"

Chat bit his lip. "Because I'm-"

Marinette shrieked and covered her ears. "I don't want to know, I don't want to know!"

"What? What's wrong with me revealing my identity? You don't have to reveal yours!"

"But if you do, I would have to as well. I would owe you."

"I don't care about that, I'm just- I'm tired of hiding from you. I trust you more than anyone else and I want to tell you who I really am!"

"You told me Chat is who you really are. That the other guy wears a mask."

"But if you knew who he was, he wouldn't have to. And neither would you."

Marinette scoffed. "I do not wear a mask!" she protested.

"Oh really?" Chat seemed unimpressed. "You go around every single day the same way you do as Ladybug?"

Marinette opened her mouth as if to rebut, but then deflated, knowing he was right. "No, I don't."

"See?"

"But that doesn't mean 'Ladybug is who I really am', I prefer to think of myself as the other girl, not as Ladybug. I guess that's just how we differ."

"Why don't you think of yourself as Ladybug?"

"Because Ladybug is so much greater than I am. She is strong, and brave, and beautiful, and I'm just…me…." Marinette sat on the bench in front of the lockers and looked down.

Chat kneeled in front of her and put his hands on her shoulders. She looked down into his green eyes and felt tears streaming to her own. She felt her knees hit the tiled floor as she fell against Chat's chest, their arms wrapping around each other in an embrace. She cried against his shoulder for a moment before willing herself to stop.

"I hate fighting with you, Chat," she said.

"I hate fighting with you too," he said back.

"I want this stupid competition to get over with so we can go back to the way things were before."

"Things will never be like they were before, Ladybug. Not really. You can only go forwards, never back."

Marinette nodded into his shoulder and pulled away. She stood and wiped her eyes. "Uh, you- you said you wanted to go to a bar?"

Chat waved his hand. "I think it'd be best if we go and get some sleep. Tomorrow's our last Saturday rehearsal."

Marinette nodded, and she walked with Chat over to where Alya and Nino were.

* * *

Marinette took Chat's advice, and slept a little too much that night. The next morning, she was rushing around trying to make sure she had everything before rushing out the door and over to the Academy. Everyone was already there when Marinette burst through the door of the practice room, and everyone stared at her as she set her stuff down. Adrien stood next to her as Marinette caught her breath.

"Running a little late?" he asked.

Marinette nodded, rolling her shoulders to loosen up. "Overslept."

Adrien yawned and stretched his arms over his head. "Same, though, I've slept better last night than I have in a long time." Marinette had to stop herself from staring at the inch of belly Adrien was showing under his shirt as he stretched.

"Lucky you." She forced her eyes to stay on his.

"Hey, competition is next week, so you'll get to sleep in after then."

Marinette gulped. He was right, and then she wouldn't get to dance with Adrien again.

"Y- yeah, that'll be nice, I guess."

"Or maybe the troop will continue, I mean, we don't know yet."

Marinette nodded. Chloe came into the room then, Sabrina tagging along behind. She looked extremely pleased with herself as she walked over to Kim, her partner.

Rehearsal went as normal, Adrien announced that they were definitely ready to go to competition and were going to do fantastic, for sure.

Everyone was packing up when Chloe made her way across the room straight to Mylene and Ivan. The two of them looked very surprised that Chloe would be anywhere near them, and they eyed her suspiciously.

"Hey, Ivan, Mylene," Chloe said in a sickly sweet voice that made Marinette wince. "What did you guys do last night?"

The couple looked at each other and looked back at Chloe. "We just stayed in, Chloe. What about you?" Mylene said. She was much nicer than Marinette would have been.

"Oh, I was at this little club called Miraculous, maybe you've heard of it?"

Mylene and Ivan looked at each other again. "Yeah, we've head of it," Ivan said.

"Oh, I think you've done a little more than heard of it."

"Chloe, I'm not sure what-" Mylene started, but Chloe interrupted.

"In fact, I'm pretty sure I saw you there."

Their eyes widened. Ivan took a step forwards, putting his body between Chloe's and Mylene's. "So what if you did, Chloe? What's it to you?"

"You could've said you were dancers at Miraculous,  _Stoneheart_  and  _the Horrificator_!" A few people murmured at this revelation, Marinette felt her eyes widen.

 _"_ _We met at Miraculous. And it turned out we go to the same school and everything, it was a fantastic coincidence."_ Marinette had remembered the Horrificator saying.

"You found us out, good for you. What does that matter?" Ivan seemed to be getting bigger with anger.

"You can't be a part of more than one troop, dummies! And even if you aren't, any dancer of Miraculous is not welcome in this troop!" Chloe yelled at the two of them. "Get out and I had better not see you anywhere near us next Saturday!"

"You can't-!" Ivan started to yell, but Mylene laid a hand on his arm.

"Let's get out of here, Ivan," she said, and walked up to Chloe directly, noses practically touching. "You're just jealous you couldn't be a part of a group so amazing as Miraculous, and we're going to crush you into dust on Saturday, just you watch." With that she grabbed Ivan's hand, and marched out of the room with her head held high.

Marinette felt a sickness in her stomach that made her want to vomit. With all the running around, it had never occurred to her that she would literally be participating twice in the competition. Like many other things, the stress had warped her sense.

Adrien too looked upset as he packed up.

"I'll see you later, Marinette," he said as he headed out of the room.

"Bye," she called as she packed up.

Alya came to stand by her with her own bag in hand. Everyone had pretty much departed at that point and the two girls headed over to the coffee shop as per usual.

"I feel so stupid, I can't believe it never occurred to me," Marinette said, her face in her hands.

Alya shrugged. "At least we know before the competition and not after. I just wish I'd've known that my Saturday mornings were going to be wasted three months ago, I never would've joined the Academy troop."

Marinette's laugh was not convincing and Alya eyed her.

"You're going to be dancing for Miraculous and not the Academy, right Marinette?"

Marinette balked and rubbed the back of her neck. "Uh, I- I'm not sure."

Alya's jaw dropped and she looked at her best friend with borderline disgust. "What do you mean, 'I'm not sure'? You can't seriously be thinking about dancing for Chloe and making her win. What's gotten into you?!"

"I wouldn't be doing it for Chloe! I just- I get to-" Marinette swallowed.

"What? What do you get to do with the Academy that you don't get to do with Miraculous?"

"I- I get to dance with Adrien." Marinette's voice was quiet, and she didn't look at Alya.

Alya was silent and Marinette looked up at her. Her mouth was still open, and she was shaking her head. "Plagg and Tikki, everyone is counting on you! You raised this group up from nothing! You confronted your fears by facing Chat! You refused pay to save Plagg and Tikki a measly sum! You convinced Le Dessinateur to sell his paintings and donate the proceeds to Miraculous! You promoted the club through the Ladyblog! And you're just going to throw it away for a stupid boy?!" Alya was screaming at Marinette by the end.

"Shhh, not so loud," Marinette said quietly, looking around.

"No! No, if you're going to betray all of us just like that, you don't deserve to have your privacy!" Alya stepped away, and looked away from Marinette. "I can't- I don't- Don't even show up to the rehearsal today, just don't." She crossed the street without Marinette.

"Alya, wait!" Marinette called out, but Alya did not stop.

Marinette stood still on the street, her feet refused to move. In that moment, she was willing to give up Ladybug, give up Miraculous, give up Adrien, just to take back the last five minutes of her life.

She finally willed her feet to move, and she stared at the ground. No thoughts crossed her mind as she wandered until she finally ended up at the coffee shop. She entered and walked towards the barista, not looking at who it was, like she usually did.

"The usual?" an all-too familiar voice asked.

She looked up to see Nathanael giving her a look behind his register, and she nodded.

"What's eating you, bug?" he asked, writing her name on the cup.

"N- nothing, I don't wanna talk about it."

He shrugged, and started to make her drink. "Oh, I'll be late to rehearsal today. I couldn't get anyone to fill in for me, but I'll be there, I promise. And I'll be there for the rest of the week." He was referring to the rehearsals they had decided to instill for the last week before the competition.

Marinette nodded and sniffed. "I don't think I'll be there, actually."

"What do you mean, you're Ladybug."

Marinette shook her head. "Not anymore." To stop the tears, she had to bite her lip so hard she nearly drew blood.

Nathanael sighed, and looked behind him to see if his manager was watching. "Look, I don't know what's going on, and, honestly, I don't care. But whatever has got you butthurt, you need to get over it." Marinette blinked, she was taken aback by his honesty. "We have a competition to win and a club to keep open. And the Ladybug- no, the Marinette I know would never give up the week before competition no matter what."

Marinette blinked and Nathanael kept working on her drink. "Just get over it," she repeated.

"Yup," he said, popping the "p" off his lips. He slid her coffee across the counter, and she looked at it.

"But I didn't pay-"

Nathanael pulled his wallet out of his pocket and slid his card through the machine. "This one's on me. So now you have to go because you owe me."

Marinette looked at him over the register and blinked once more.

"Nathanael, I-" She reached across the register and grabbed his head with both of her hands. She planted a kiss on his cheek, grabbed her coffee, and headed out the door. "Bye, thanks! I see you at rehearsal!"

"B- bye, Marinette," he said, his entire face as red as his hair.

* * *

Marinette arrived at the warehouse, completely dressed in her Ladybug costume. A few people were there, including Chat, Alya, and Nino. She ignored Chat's attempts at flirting and grabbed Alya's arm to drag her to a secluded corner of the room.

"You have some nerve to-" Alya started to say, her face twisted in a snarl.

"You're right, you're 100%, completely right. I'm an idiot and all that jazz, I don't deserve to lead this group. Which, I may mention, I have been saying since the beginning. I'm sorry, it was a bad moment. I overslept, I got freaked out, and the last few days haven't been the greatest to begin with. Please, I'm sorry." Marinette breathed a sigh as she finished and Alya stared at her. Her mouth was closed and her arms were crossed over her chest.

"So you're willing to kick Chloe to the curb to help us out?"

"I'd throw her to the curb, you know that."

Alya cracked a smile, and then turned serious again. "What about Adrien?"

"Him too, there's too much on the line here."

Alya pursed her lips and shook he head. "That was a really shitty thing you did before."

"Couldn't have said it better myself."

"And you made the right decision."

"At least I did something right."

"Now we've got a competition to win, so let's get rolling."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is the competition. Then one more chapter and we'll be done you guys.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They're there to dance, and nothing can stop them now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is it you guys, literally the chapter that is the culmination of this entire fic. Shoot me, shoot me now. I'm nervous as hell to give it to you guys, but here it is. I hope its comprehensive and all that jazz.  
> [EDIT] Thanks to lollipop1141 for the idea for revision, I hope you guys enjoy it

The Miraculous dancers met everyday to rehearse their routine for the competition, and with everyday, Marinette got equally more reassured and stressed. It all came to a head when Chat found her having a panic attack in the alley next to Miraculous. She was crying, shaking, and breathing so hard she felt she was going to hyperventilate.

He had initially wanted to take her to the hospital, but she convinced him to just sit with her until she calmed down. He rubbed her back, and there was a look in his eyes that made her feel bad for doing this. But when she apologized, he insisted that she shouldn't ever apologize for being so stressed out she had a panic attack.

"I should take on some of your responsibilities," he told her, still rubbing her back.

"It won't do much good, we have two more days of rehearsal and then the competition," she told him, still breathing heavily. "Oh god." She covered her face and felt herself shaking uncontrollably once more.

"Hey, hey, c'mon, let's get you some coffee." He helped her up, and walked her down the street, an arm around her waist

He walked her to the coffee shop she and Alya visited all the time.

"You go here?" Marinette asked as they entered.

"Yeah, all the time. Do you?"

"Yeah, all the time."

They walked up to the barista (who, thank the good Lord, was not Nathanael) and Chat ordered a smoothie for both of them.

"You need some fruit," he said. They got their drinks and sat down by the window.

"How are you feeling now?" Chat asked.

"Better, I'm so-"

"No, don't apologize, I'm just glad I could _smooth_ things over." He held up his smoothie to illustrate the pun.

Marinette smiled and laughed a bit. She closed her eyes and shook her head. "I'm just so tired."

"It'll all be over after Saturday."

"But then what? What if we-"

Chat's hand enveloped her own and he cut her off. "Stop, you'll work yourself up again. Just finish your smoothie without thinking about the competition. We're just two friends hanging out at a coffee shop drinking smoothies."

"We're still wearing our Miraculous costumes."

"And we look damn fabulous doing so. Finish your smoothie."

Marinette did so, she wasn't a big fan of strawberry kiwi, but it wasn't bad. Though she still felt the gnawing doubt and stress in her gut, Chat chatted aimlessly about his neighbors and how annoying they were.

"And the guy above me, don't even get me started on him, I think he brings horses in there and just has a rodeo with all the noise he makes."

"Or he has big parties," Marinette offered.

Chat gasped as if this was a great offense. "And he didn't invite me?"

"You're not as famous as you think you are, Chat."

"As far as you know." Chat had a knowing smile that made Marinette shake her head. "It's true, I could be- uh, the President for all you know."

Marinette nearly spit up her drink in laughter. "Yeah, right, and I'm the Queen of England."

Chat shrugged. "I'd believe it, my lady." He winked at her and Marinette shook her head.

"How'd you find this place?" she asked him.

"A friend recommended it. You?"

"I just kind of stumbled upon it." She smiled and closed her eyes, leaning her chin on her palm.

"When was the last time you got a good night's sleep?"

Marinette shook her head. "Probably when I was in the womb."

Chat made a face. "Ick, that was more than I need to know."

"Hey, you were there once too."

"Not in the same one."

Marinette shrugged. "You never know. You don't know who I am."

"Alright, I think it's time for a nap. I'll walk you back to your apartment."

"No no no, then you'll know where I live."

"So?"

"You don't understand." She was definitely drifting off. The moment with Chat had done her a lot of good, a little too much. She was more relaxed than she'd been in a while.

"I'll call you a taxi."

Sure enough, a car pulled up and Chat helped Marinette into the backseat. He pressed a few bills into the drivers hand saying, "Take her wherever she needs to go and keep the change."

"Yes, sir."

"Take care, my lady." Chat pressed a kiss to her hand.

"Chat, I can't ever-"

"I see you tomorrow." The car started moving and Marinette directed the driver to her parents bakery. She felt bad about letting Chat pay for a car ride that was only a few blocks. But the driver didn't seem to mind, Chat must've paid him a good sum.

"Honey, good to see you- What are you wearing?" her mother asked.

"Um, remember? I told you about the dancing troop I'm a part of…"

* * *

 Thursday and Friday rehearsals went by smoothly, but Marinette was still increasingly worried about their prospects. Friday night was the last Dance Off for Miraculous and the dancers decided to show off their routine instead of competing.

"We think it's best to maintain camaraderie in this time," Marinette announced from the elevated platform the Bubbler usually stood from. The Gamer, who had politely declined being a part of the troop citing his terrible dancing, was in charge of playing the track for the dancers.

The dancers gathered in the pit and began their routine for the crowd. When they finished, the crowd cheered and clapped. Marinette insisted the dancers go home to sleep so that they would be well rested for the next day.

As she was about to leave, Le Dessinateur pulled her aside.

"Yes, Le Dessinateur?" she asked him.

"I thought I should show you this," he said as he shrugged and lead her down the hallway she had first seen him at Miraculous.

"Hey!" Chat protested, following the two of them. "What's going on here?"

Le Dessinateur rolled his eyes. "This really doesn't concern you, Kitty."

"It's fine, he just wants to show me something, Chat. You don't have to wait for me," Marinette said as she tried to push Le Dessinateur down the hall. The last thing she wanted was the two of them to get on each other's nerves and for Le Dessinateur to "accidentally" let something slip.

"I'd much rather come with you," Chat said, crossing his arms over his chest.

Marinette sighed, and eyed Le Dessinateur. They followed him down the hallway to where a tarp was covering the wall. Le Dessinateur moved to one side of it, and grabbed one side of it.

"To make good on my promise," he said, and pulled the sheet down.

The mural of Ladybug was done, and it was very nice. The larger-than-life portrait of Marinette's alter ego was leaning on Chat's shoulder. The exquisite detail of the two portraits made Marinette tilt her head to once side.

"Nice," Chat said. "What is this?"

Le Dessinateur groaned. "I couldn't possibly explain to you the detail of-"

Chat took a menacing step forwards, but Marinette grabbed his arm to hold him back.

"Le Dessinateur made this mural of you back before he even knew me," she explain to him. "Alya made a bet with him that he would need to make a new one. Of me, and this is him making good on his promise."

Chat looked at the mural and tilted his head to one side. Marinette pushed him in the direction of the front door.

"It's beautiful, Le Dessinateur," she said. "We'll see you tomorrow. Thanks so much."

"I don't like the way he talks to you," Chat said. "Or to me, for that matter."

Marinette shrugged. "Let's just say he and I have a history that I would prefer not to go into."

Chat made a face. "What does that-"

"You'll just have to trust me, Chat, please. Now, go home and go to bed, please. I'll see you tomorrow."

Chat left her (reluctantly) with a pun and a kiss on the hand, and they departed for their homes.

Marinette could barely sleep, all she could think about was Adrien alone with the Academy troop, his partner gone. She told herself not to think of it, to put it out of her mind. In the deepest part of her heart, she knew it was the right thing to do, but she shuddered to think how she was going to look Adrien in the eye the next time she saw him. Oh god, how was she going to explain where she was?

Needless to say, she did not sleep very well that night.

* * *

 Today was the day, the big day. The only day that mattered to Marinette. The competition was to be held at a large theater in Paris, and the Miraculous dancers were all to meet at 12:30 in their practice room. Marinette got coffee from the shop, Alya and Nino were there waiting for her.

"Chat'll meet us there," Nino said. "Said he needed as many cat naps as he could get."

Marinette rolled her eyes. She couldn't believe that Chat had been able to make a pun through proxy. It truly was the most Chat-like thing she'd ever seen.

They got their coffee and headed out to the theater. In the bathroom at the theater, the three of them changed into their costumes. Alya helped her paint the red over her eyes and Marinette looked at herself, and then looked down.

"I can't do it, Alya," she said, gripping the sink with both hands.

"Yes you can." Alya gripped her shoulder and looked at her through the mirror. "This is not the time to back out now."

"But Adrien is waiting for me, he's waiting for me to come and dance with him, and I won't be there." Marinette could not stop the tears from flowing and Alya pulled her head close to her heart.

"C'mere, you have to put him out of your mind. You made your choice, and you can't go back now. I just won't let you."

Marinette sniffled and pulled away. "You're right, you're right, just like you always are. I just didn't sleep well last night."

"Let's fix your paint, c'mon." Alya finished painting Marinette's eyes and they left to find Nino waiting for them.

"Took you long enough," he said, but Alya shook her head to let him know it wasn't time to joke.

Timebreaker and Dark Cupid headed towards them. "Hey there, guys," Timebreaker called out to them. "Do you guys have any idea of what room we're supposed to be in? This place is like a maze."

"Yeah, c'mon," said Nino, and he lead them to the room they were supposed to be in. "Here it is, and here we go."

They entered the room and noticed that everyone inside was crowded around a TV. The five of them also crowded around with the rest of the Miraculous Dancers.

Chat turned and saw Marinette, and pushed his way to her side.

"Hey, hey, hey, nice of you to drop by, my lady," he said.

"Hey, we're also here," Alya said, nudging Nino.

"Hey, man, nice to see you." Chat said to Nino and they clapped hands together. "Nice to see you as always, Lady Wifi, Timebreaker, Dark Cupid."

"What's going on?" asked Marinette, gesturing to the TV.

"They're showing the performances. The troop from Italy was really good, I wish you could've seen them, Ladybug."

"We got here as quick as we could," Alya said.

"Who's up next?" Nino asked.

"The troop from L'Académie d'Art Paris," the Horrificator, no, Mylene said. She was standing directly in front of Marinette, Ivan was a few feet away, trying not to stand in front of anyone.

Marinette's heart froze, and Alya grabbed her arm. "It'll be alright," she whispered in Marinette's ear.

Chat seemed just as concerned about this troop as anyone. In fact, everyone was silent as the announcers announced them onto the stage. The crowd cheered on the monitor and the curtain came up. Marinette's heart was in her throat, but then it plummeted when she saw what was on stage.

"Where is everyone?" Mylene asked, and everyone murmured.

There were only four people on stage: Chloe, Sabrina, and two guys that Marinette had seen around the Academy. They didn't seem to notice, and started their routine. Marinette made a face. Though she had learned and participated in it, now the routine looked ridiculous with only four people. A few people in the audience clapped, and the four people headed off the stage. Marinette could see the fury in Chloe's expression even from the small monitor.

Timebreaker started laughing hysterically and several people turned to look at her.

"What? Serves her right for being such a bitch, I feel bad for their partners to be honest, don't you?" she said, nudging Dark Cupid.

"It was damn tedious to be her partner," he said.

"Partner, what?" Marinette repeated.

"We were part of the Academy troop," Dark Cupid clarified.

"But we ditched so we could be a part of this troop."

"No way, so did we," Princess Fragrance said and she grabbed Reflekta's arm.

Several people stepped forwards to confirm their switch from Academy to Miraculous, and Marinette just stood there, unable to say anything. Someone pulled out make-up remover wipes and everyone was wiping off their makeup and revealing their identities. She would never have known that she knew these people so well, Kim, Alix, Juleka, Rose, etc. She had been meeting all of them every Friday and Saturday for months now, and she never would've known it.

A wipe was pressed into her hand by Alya, and they locked eyes for a moment. It was time to drop all formalities. How would she look if she, the leader, didn't remove her make up to? It would be a lie.

She turned her face away from everyone else and wiped her eyes as best she could. And for a split second, before she lifted her head, she reveled in her last moment of anonymity. She raised her head and her eyes locked eyes with-

Her hands found her mouth before the gasp left her lips. "Adrien?" she nearly shouted out behind her hand.

"Marinette?" he gaped. He took a step forwards, but she took a step back. She felt Alya's hand on her back.

"I can't- I can't-" she said. "You- You were going to leave me to dance with the Miraculous troop?!"

Chat- no, Adrien blinked, looked at Nino, and then back at Marinette. "You were going to do the same thing."

"I had to, I had to be here, I had to- to get over it." Her eyes flicked over to Le Dessinateur (well, Nahanael), then back.

Adrien shrugged. "Then what's the problem."

"You- we've been dancing this whole time, every Friday and Saturday, and a few Wednesdays."

Adrien narrowed his eyes. "You lied to me about how well you could dance! Why didn't you just tell me you were Ladybug?"

"I couldn't! I had to- I had to lead the troop, it just complicated everything."

Adrien shrugged. "If you ask me, things are a lot simpler now."

"Marinette," Mylene said, touching her arm. "I'm so glad it's you."

"Me too," said Rose.

A chorus of her peers came up with a lot of positivity, and they all smiled at her. Marinette felt their good wishes wash over here, and held onto Mylene's shoulder for support.

"Marinette." She turned to Adrien at the sound of her name. "Please, I want to-"

Alya cleared her throat and she nodded to the time. It was nearly 12:45, and they went on after 1. Marinette nodded and stepped back in front of everyone.

"Alright, we need to warm up just a little bit, not too much. Remember the order that you go on, this is the real deal, guys, we don't have any time for screwing up," she said.

Alix raised her hand.

"Yes, Al- Timebreaker."

"Can we put our makeup back on?" she asked and Marinette couldn't help but smile.

"Be done by quarter-to."

The rest of them murmured and began putting their paint back on. Marinette turned to ask Alya for help, but she was helping Nino.

"Um, will you help me, Marinette?" Ch- Adrien asked, nudging her. Marinette looked up at him, and saw a different person, neither Chat nor Adrien. He seemed unsure and maybe even scared.

She held out her hand for him to put the paint in her hand. "Only if you help me with mine."

He smiled a real smile and handed her his black paint.

"Sit," she said and she kneeled on the ground.

"Oh so I'm a dog now?" he asked as he sat cross-legged on the floor.

"You certainly act like one." She began painting over his eyes. She didn't want to think about the implications of how this would change them. Not now, not when the culmination of all they'd worked for was literally around the corner waiting to jump them.

" _Chien Noir,_ what do you think, my lady?"

She hummed. "I like your current one better."

"Well _color_ me surprised, who'da thought you'd like something of mine?"

Marinetted hummed again and handed him her paint. "Now do me." She closed her eyes.

"Whatever you say," Adrien said, implying what Marinette really hoped he wasn't implying.

"Shut up." She felt the cool touch of paint and Adrien's fingers over her eyes.

"Pity we have cover up those eyes again."

"You'll see them again, I'm sure."

"Promise?"

"Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies."

Adrien finished and they stood. She directed the Miraculous dancers in a warm up, and told them not to do anything too strenuous. They murmured amongst themselves and waited patiently for their guide to call them out for their turn. Marinette was still confident, and was even happier knowing that her friends were by her side. Despite how confusing things might seem at the current moment, a weight had been lifted off her shoulders when she learned that Adrien wasn't left waiting for her.

Adrien.

There were so many things she wanted to say, so many things she wanted to do. The boy who'd danced covered in paint with her was the same boy who'd did his best to make sure she wouldn't be left in the dust with the Academy dancers. But he was also the same boy who'd tried to kiss her in the practice room. She wondered what was going on through his head, but she couldn't think about that, not now. Not now that they had a competition to win.

The curtain was down as they shuffled onto the stage into their places. She felt a hand on her arm and she looked up into Adrien's green eyes.

"Good luck, Marinette," he said.

"You too, uh- Adrien." He moved to the other side of the stage.

The curtain came up and the beginning of "Dirty Work" by Austin Mahone started playing

_And now_

_Everybody_

_To the dance floor_

The beat was steady and the first dancers started dancing, the Bubbler and Lady Wifi. It was a parody of what went on at Miraculous, two people in the center having a "Dance Off" and the others in two groups on either side. The groups on either side bounced with the beat in order to keep moving, as was per the rules.

Marinette swayed until it was Chat's turn to be the "winner" then she came out and "challenged" him. She and Chat danced, and Marinette lost herself to the music. She felt the same as she always did when they danced together. When she looked at him now, she saw still saw him as neither Chat nor Adrien, but as her best friend. Any anger or reservations she had melted away as she finished their part of the dance. Marinette "won" by Chat pretending to fall. She held out her hand to help him up and he looked up at her and smirked, making her heart sing. They all started dancing together, all of the Miraculous dancers. Finally posing at the end. The crowd went wild, absolutely wild and the judges murmured for a moment before the announcers dismissed their troop.

The Miraculous dancers whooped and cheered as they were herded off the stage. Marinette was happy, but they weren't out of the woods yet. The scores as well as the winner would be announced after all the dancers were done, around 3 o'clock. The Miraculous dancers all huddled by the monitor in the room they'd warmed up in, except for Marinette. She sat against the wall and leaned her head back, closing her eyes.

"Hey," a voice said next to her and she turned her hear. It was Adrien, he was sitting against the wall next to her.

She waved her hand and closed her eyes again.

"Nothing we can do now, it's in God's hands now." He seemed resigned.

Marinette nodded. There was a silence between them, and Marinette sighed.

"Marinette, I-" he said. "I have to ask."

Marinette leaned forwards and looked him in the eye. She was both exhilarated and nervous to hear the question.

"Why- why did you come back to Miraculous? I mean, I knew you came into the pit that one Friday and I recognized you right away, and then you fainted and just-" He waved his hand and scratched his head. "You came back the next week, why?"

That answer was easy. "To prove to myself I was worth something, and it just kind of escalated from there."

"Why didn't you want to tell me who you were?"

Marinette leaned her head back against the wall. That answer was complicated. "Because I was scared, things were just fine without knowing. I just- I didn't want any drama."

"Come to find out it was more complicated not knowing."

Marinette sighed. "Is it really though?"

"Well, I would've liked to have known who I tried to kiss in the practice room a month ago. I don't know, things may have been different that way."

Marinette blushed pure red and turned her face away. "I- Adrien I-"

"I have to tell you how good it is to hear you say my real name, Marinette."

"What are you saying, Adrien? What do you want from me?"

"Whatever you're willing to give, I'll take."

"What if I don't have anything left to give? You've seen me at my greatest and my least, what else can I give you?"

Adrien shrugged. "I wouldn't say no to a bone or two."

"Whatever you say _Chien Noir._ "

"I'm telling you, it sounds good. I missed an opportunity."

"How did you get your name?"

"I found my hood in a department store window and the name just kind of fell into place."

Marinette laughed genuinely. "You did not."

"I did, I swear. Just ask Nino."

"Did you meet Nino at Miraculous?"

"Yeah. That's how I know him. And you know Alya from the Academy."

"Yeah, and you too apparently."

"I gotta tell you, I was disappointed that you weren't the real Queen of England."

"Look who's talking, His Excellency Mr. President."

He shrugged. His phone buzzed and he looked at it. "Oh, I gotta go," he said. "There's a little canary waiting for me at the door. Come with me, I'll need some hands." He helped Marinette up and they went to the side door of the theater where a pizza delivery guy was waiting.

"You did not!" she said.

"You should really stop being so surprised when I do something like this."

"Well, I would if you would stop doing things like this." He deposited pizza boxes into her arms and a few liters of pop into her hands.

"Do you think this'll be enough?" he asked her.

"We'll make it work."

They went back to the room and the group devoured the pizza and the pop. They sat on the floor and ate pizza and laughed together until the results came out. At 3 o'clock, the announcer came out onto the stage, and all murmuring from the crowd ceased.

"Will the groups send two representatives to the stage, please?" he asked over the broadcast.

They decided Adrien and Marinette should go. The two of them made their way to the stage with a lot of other representatives. She slipped her hand onto Adrien's wrist and they made their way to the stage.

"I feel like I'm going to be sick," she whispered to him.

"Well, just don't throw up on the judge," Adrien whispered back.

Marinette cracked a smile and they lined up on the stage with the rest of the representatives.

"The awards are split up into first, second and third," said the announcer. "In third place, with a score of 89 points, the Italian troop from Rome, Italy." There was applause as the representatives took their trophy and took a picture with the announcer. "In second place, with a score of 93 points, Nice Dancers, from Nice, France." More clapping, another trophy, another picture.

"I like their name," Adrien whispered in her ear. Marinette hit his shoulder and he quieted down.

"And finally, in first place, the winner of 75,000 Euros is…" The announcer made a show of making a dramatic pause. "The Miraculous troop from Paris, France."

Marinette didn't even hear the last part of his announcement. She shrieked and wrapped her arms around Chat in an embrace. He hugged her back. They accepted their trophy and their big check and took a picture with the announcer. The dancers all congratulated them and Marinette started crying.

"We won, we won, Chat, I mean Adrien, I mean-" she said emphatically at him, her arms wrapped around him.

"Yes, yes I know," he said. Marinette hugged him close the check in her hand, and pulled away. Adrien, trophy in one hand, used his free hand to tilt her face upwards. He leaned down and kissed her.

Marinette knew she should pull away, that this was going to be broadcasted in front of everyone. Her parents, the Miraculous dancers, even Plagg and Tikki had promised they would watch the competition on TV. But she stayed until she couldn't breath and she pulled away. The crowd cheered once more, and they were ushered off the stage.

She couldn't look Adrien in the eye, but he took her hand and lead her back with the trophy still in hand. When they entered the room, the roar of the dancers was deafening. Chat raised the trophy in his hand and everyone cheered and clapped. Marinette raised the check up for them to see and they crowded around them. Marinette and Adrien stayed side by side as their peers cheered for them and cheered for Miraculous.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fml guys I don't like it but I don't know how to change it. I hope you guys enjoy it at least. There will be one more chapter of pure Adrinette fluff because these two deserve it.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The future is looking pretty bright for these two dorks, can I get a "fucking finally"?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter, hope it lives up to the hype.  
> Also thanks to novella12nite for the idea to have them watching videos of Marinette as a kid.

The video was labeled "The Future: Ladybug and Chat Noir."

On screen was a young woman with black hair in pigtails next to a young man with messy blonde hair sitting on a couch together..

"Hey everyone, I'm Marinette Dupain-Cheng," said the woman.

"And I'm Adrien Agreste," said the man. "You probably know us better as Ladybug and Chat Noir."

"Thank you so much to everyone that has supported us and Miraculous in the last few months, we really appreciate it."

"As most of you probably know, our troop won the Mayor's Break Dancing Competition in Paris this past weekend."

"This was made possibly by all of the dancers at Miraculous, and the entire group decided to donate the entire reward to the owners of that club."

"We will still be participating at the Dance Off every Friday and Doubles Night on the first Wednesday of the month."

"We would appreciate it if you would continue to support Miraculous and all the dancers there, thank you so much."

"Until next time."

"I'm Ladybug."

"And I'm Chat Noir."

"Bye guys," they said together and waved at the camera.

* * *

_Six Months Later_

"Marinette!" Adrien called from the front door. "Where does this go?!"

"What is it marked?!" Marinette called from the bedroom.

"It isn't marked!"

"Then it must be yours! It'll go either in storage or we'll toss it!"

"You're just going to throw away my things without looking through them?!"

"No, you are!" They were yelling because of the distance between them, not because they were fighting…today at least. "I told you to pack some stuff that you should throw away!"

"Why should I do that?!"

"To make room for my stuff of course!"

Adrien set the box on the counter and started going through it. "I wouldn't have needed to if we had just found a bigger apartment!"

"This one's big enough for the both of us and you know it!"

"Bugaboo, this is definitely your box!"

"How can you tell?!"

"It's got pink stuff in it!"

"Oh for pity's sake!" Marinette stormed out of the bedroom and headed over to where the box was. She rifled through the contents and then closed the box. "Oh, this should've gone in storage, take it back down." She headed back to the bedroom to finish whatever she was doing, but Adrien held her back, wrapping his arms around her middle.

"You know, if you're going to treat me like a servant, you should at least pay me."

She smirked. "Not if you're a slave."

Adrien laughed and started kissing her neck.

"Hey, hey, no. We have work to do."

"Fuck that shit, I have better things to do."

Marinette pushed him away and insisted she had to go back to working on putting her dresser back together.

"Then can we…?"

Marinette rolled her eyes. "No, we have to go to Miraculous."

It was the first Wednesday of the month, which meant it was Doubles Night. Though Marinette had passed on the mantle of champ back to Adrien, she still participated in Doubles Night. They still went to the Academy, but Adrien had stopped taking ballet classes. He had enough credits to graduate with a dance major, and Marinette would be finishing up her degree as well.

The Miraculous troop was still rehearsing and going around the country participating in competitions and tournaments. Marinette and Adrien went along with them, extremely excited to see something they'd started take off so well. There was talk of going to a competition in Belgium or Germany or maybe even the UK.

They finished getting all of Marinette's boxes into their new apartment. They had finally decided to move into together after Marinette's mom nearly walked in on them making out one day. And Marinette was pretty much sleeping over at Adrien's apartment most nights anyways.

There was a knock at the door and Adrien answered it. "Yeah, yeah, c'mon in," he said, ushering the movers inside.

"Where do you want them?" one of them asked.

"The long one right here, and the big one over here." Adrien gestured to where they wanted their cargo to be.

Marinette came out to see what they were doing. "I thought we got the last packages," she said.

"We did, but this is a surprise." He paid the movers and positioned Marinette where she could se both. "Ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

Adrien pulled the cloth off the paintings and Marinette gasped. "Is that- is that 'Red Beauty'?" she asked.

"And…" Adrien ran across the room and pulled the cloth off the other painting. "'Miraculous'."

"Oh, Adrien, you didn't."

"I did, think of it as a housewarming present."

"How did you get them? They sold."

Adrien shrugged. "I bought them."

"From who?"

"Le Dessinateur. The guy who bought them works for my dad, he bought them for me."

"That's too much,  _chaton_." She wrapped her arms around his middle and pressed her cheek against his chest.

"I wanted to buy 'I-Fell Tower' and 'Portrait of a Lady' but I couldn't do everything, my lady."

She looked up at him and kissed him tenderly. "This is enough for me, I'm happier than I'd ever thought I would be."

* * *

"Adrien! Come look at this!" Marinette called as she was rifling through the boxes of stuff from her room labeled "misc." It was later in the day, and they were already just messing around with the different stuff they were finding in the boxes.

"More of my stuff you're going to throw away?!" Adrien called from the bathroom.

"No, it's videos of me as a kid!"

Adrien walked out of the bathroom, wiping his hands on a towel, and looking a little wet.

"How on earth did you get yourself wet?" Marinette asked as he seated himself beside her.

"The shower head looked like it wasn't on completely."

"So you took it off?"

Adrien made a face that said "Well, yeah."

"Did you turn the water off first?"

Adrien's face turned a shade of pink that said "No." "I am not a smart man," he said, completely straight faced.

Marinette shook her head. "But I love you." Adrien wrapped his arm around her waist and she pushed him away. "Ick, I thought cats hated water."

"I used one of my 9 lives braving the evil shower head to make sure it wouldn't fall on you, and this is how you repay me. Me-"

"Don't say it Adrien! I swear to-"

Adrien grabbed her shoulders and looked her in the face. " _Meow-_ ch, my lady." His grin was as wicked as a hurricane and Marinette stuck her tongue out at him.

"Put this in the DVD player." She handed him a DVD and he did as she asked.

"When are these videos from anyways?" Adrien asked as he grabbed the remote and curled against Marinette on the floor in front of the TV.

"I'm not sure exactly." Marinette leaned against him and put her head under his chin. "I think my mom put them in this box."

The video lit up to see Marinette, maybe two years old. She was standing in front of the TV while a parade was on. The decorations around the room looked like Christmas time.

"This was the old apartment, back before we got the bakery," Marinette explained.

Adrien laughed. "What are you doing?"

"Marinette,  _petite papillon_ ," Marinette's mother called out from behind the camera, and little Marinette on the TV looked up. "Dance for me, baby."

Marinette and Adrien both started laughing as two year old Marinette tried to dance like the girls on the TV in the parade. She flailed her arms, kicked her feet, and ended up falling on the ground. The video cut out then and started playing a video of a stage with a group of young girls, maybe around five all on the stage.

"This must be one of my ballet recitals as a kid," Marinette said.

"I remember having a few of those," Adrien said.

"Did you father ever come?"

"He may have come to a few when my mom was still around, but not after she left, that's for sure."

Marinette tilted her face upward and kissed the bottom of his chin. Right now was not the time to be sad. The person holding the camera zoomed very far into what was probably Marinette, but looked more like a white blur with blue-black hair.

"Where is she?" Marinette's mom asked on camera.

"She's on the left, Sabine," her dad said.

"Where?"

"Right there."

Adrien chuckled at the exchange and Marinette rolled her eyes.

The five year olds started their routine. It was very simple, a pirouette, a spin, ect. all to music.

"You're very cute," Adrien stated, squeezing her tighter.

"You can't even tell which one's me."

She felt Adrien shrug. "I can tell."

The next video was of Marinette a little older, maybe thirteen. Marinette immediately groaned when she saw it.

"It's the braces phase," she said. "Don't look, child, shield your eyes." She put her hand in front of Adrien's eyes, but he batted it away.

"Hi, my name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and this is my style," said the Marinette on camera. She started in her hip-hop routine she learned from the class she

Adrien started laughing until Marinette elbowed him. "Shut up, I thought was cool."

"You are cool, I mean, that opening line was gold, and just look at that outfit." Marinette's outfit consisted of her signature pigtails, a tank top that showed her sports bra, baggy black sweat pants, and trainers. The sweatshirt tied around her waist, braces, and lensless glasses Marinette wore completed the outfit to make her cringe.

"You were really good even then," Adrien told her.

"Thanks," Marinette said as she watched herself pose with her arms crossed across her chest while holding up two peace signs.

The next video regressed and went back in time. Marinette was probably 10 now and in a tap dancing recital. She wore all black and had a black top hat on (most likely her teacher's idea). Marinette smiled as she tried her best to follow the moves she was taught. She had very little memories from that class, but she remembered how much she had hated that style of dancing and was determined to never do it again.

The video fast-forwarded a lot to Marinette when she was 15 and in a break dancing basics class in high school. It was a lesson, and Marinette was paired with another guy her age to dance with.

"Who's that dancing with you?" Adrien asked.

Marinette squinted and thought a moment. "Rick, I think his name is? Or Nick, I can't remember really, he was just my partner for this class, I didn't know him outside of it or anything."

"He's pretty good."

Marinette nodded. "He was one of the instructor's kids, I think. So this was like his third time taking the class or something like that."

"You're really good too."

The next video was around the same time as the one before, and immediately Marinette started laughing. The video was of Marinette sitting at a table, presumably with some of her friends. She had a red yo-yo in each of her friends.

"What is this?" Adrien asked.

"Just watch."

Marinette on camera stood. "Are you ready?" she asked.

"Yeah," said the person behind the camera.

"You'd better get this because I'm only gonna do this once."

"It's filming, don't worry."

Adrien's mouth dropped as Marinette on camera began performing yo-yo tricks with the two yo-yos. She swung them around her body, tangling the strings and then untangling them, over her head and around her body. She finished with and flourish and bowed for the camera.

"How- what was that?" Adrien asked as the people on screen congratulated Marinette.

Marinette shrugged. "One of my friends in school got me hooked on yo-yo tricks, and I did them for a couple of years."

"Why'd you stop?"

"I don't know, dancing started to get pretty demanding."

"How are you so good at everything?"

Marinette turned red. "I'm not good at 'everything', just a lot of things. I'm bad at a lot of things too."

"Can you still do that?" Adrien pointed to the TV.

"I don't know, I'd have to try."

"You should incorporate that into your break dancing."

"I don't-" But Marinette cut herself off and her eyes widened. "That could be cool."

"It could be very cool, you should've done that from the beginning."

"I'll have to actually know if I still can."

"There's gotta be classes or something you can take."

Marinette shrugged. "That's probably the end of it, if you want to-" Marinette stopped as one more video came up. She had to be 17 or 18. She was wearing a leotard and tights and a pair of dancing shoes with a black sweatshirt tied around her waist. Her hair was in a bun on her head and she was standing in the first position in front of the camera.

"Hello, my name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and I hope you will consider me for the next class of dance students as L'Académie d'Art Paris. Uh, please enjoy my routine, thank you," she said to the camera.

"Oh, this is my audition tape for the Academy," Marinette said in reality.

The music started out with a simple classical piece and Marinette in the video did a simple ballet routine. The music changed to jazz and Marinette did a jazz routine. Then the music changed to hip-hop and Marinette started her now signature house routine to the song. She did a few break dancing moves as well, and froze in a pike. She stood on her feet and bowed for the camera.

"Again, my name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and I hope to be a part of the next class of dance students at L'Académie d'Art Paris. Thank you," she said. The video ended and Marinette sat silently on the ground next to Adrien.

"I'd forgotten that I did break dancing for my audition tape," she finally said.

"You were really good," said Adrien, nodding his head.

"Do you have any videos of you dancing?"

Adrien shrugged. "I'd have to look. I know I still have my audition tape around here somewhere. I was in a few professional dance productions of my dad's when I was a kid, just as a child dancer. And then I was in a few productions as a teenager and while I was at the Academy. I could probably hunt down copies of those, but…" Adrien shrugged. "There probably aren't many videos of me break dancing like this video."

"I think my mom purposely edited this together. Like all the videos she could find of me dancing."

"Well, thank her for me, it was adorable." Adrien stood and went to get the video out of the DVD player.

Marinette nodded. "Except for the braces period."

"Are you kidding? That was the best one. We're gonna show our kids that."

Both their eyes widened and they looked at each other, both red faced. Adrien winced and rubbed the back of his neck. "I mean-"

"Someday, but not anytime soon, right?"

Adrien nodded. "Yes, my lady. Whatever you say."

Marinette rolled her eyes and went back to going through the box. "Go back to trying to drown yourself, but hurry, we've gotta get ready soon."

Adrien walked by her and planted a kiss on the top of her head. "Whatever you may say, I like your style, my lady."

"Get away!" she said and waved her hands above her head to get him to go away. "Never mention that video again."

"No promises," Adrien called over his shoulder as he went back into the bathroom.

* * *

Marinette and Adrien were welcomed back to Miraculous with open arms. The 75,000 Euros they'd won was enough to put Plagg and Tikki in the black with still some money left over. They'd put it in a trust, and were slowly making money off it in case of another crisis. Meanwhile, turnout had more than doubled since the competition. They had adopted another dance night on Thursday night every other week where anyone could come and dance, without a costume.

Marinette came by every Friday to see Adrien dance, and he'd even convinced her to compete once or twice. She was happy just watching Adrien and dancing every now and again. But Doubles Night was her favorite.

She hated the fact that she might have to dance against Adrien, because she almost always won. She was better than him, but she didn't love it nearly as much as he did. But at Doubles Night, she and Adrien danced together.

They arrived in the locker rooms to everyone greeting them warmly. Rose immediately wrapped her arms around Marinette's neck in a hug and started gushing about how long it had been since they'd seen each other. When Rose let go, Marinette felt a punch on her arm and turned to see Alya there.

"Hey, girl," she said. "Nice to see you again."

"Yeah, it's not like I literally see you at school everyday."

"Not everyday, you're not taking Friday classes anymore."

"But then I see you at the Dance Off that night."

"Well, it's been a while since I've seen you on Sunday."

Marinette laughed, and Alya wrapped her arm around her waist.

"How was the move in today?" Alya asked as they unpacked their bags into the lockers.

Marinette shrugged. "It was fine, I guess. Though, Adrien got me the sweetest present."

"What?"

"You know those paintings Le Dessinateur had sold back before the first competition?"

"Yeah?"

"He bought two of them for the apartment."

Alya nodded. "Nino got me a pair of headphones the other day."

Marinette nodded. "Well, you guys have been living together for, what, two months now?"

Alya nodded. "I'm not complaining, I'm happy. I'm so glad I met him."

"I'm glad you did too." Marinette gave a side glance to where Nino and Adrien were standing and chatting. "None of this would've happened if you hadn't've dragged me to Miraculous that one Friday."

"You're welcome, don't say I never did anything for you."

"I won't I promise."

The dances started and soon Alya and Nino both went out for their turn. Adrien and Marinette sat side-by-side, talking about their new apartment.

"It just feels a little cold, don't you think?" Adrien stated.

"We could get some rugs," Marinette offered. "Or get a heater or, I don't know."

"We'll go to the store tomorrow, and we'll find something."

"Or we could get a pet."

Adrien shrugged. "We'd have to look into if that's allowed."

"Maybe a hamster, I love hamsters. I had one when I was a kid, she had beautiful red hair."

"Or we could get a cat?"

Marinette scoffed. "And give you another avenue to make puns, no thank you."

"Bugaboo, I will make a pun about anything we put in the apartment, it doesn't matter if its a cat or a hamster or a heater, I will make a pun about it."

Marinette shook her head. "I look forward to that."

"Good."

They were called out and headed to the pit.

"Nice of you to drop by," Nino said, standing next to Alya in the pit.

"Was that a pun?" Marinette asked.

"Hey, that's my territory, this means war," Adrien emphatically stated.

"Well, you should've marked it better!" Alya called, giggling to herself a her own pun.

"Should we take 'em down, my lady." Adrien held out his hand to Marinette.

"It'll be our pleasure, Chat."

The dancers started, and the crowds's roars were deafening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really disappointed in myself guys that I didn't have Marinette using yo-yos during her break dance routine you guys, that would've been fricking amazing, but no, I didn't....but I really want to now...I just might write a one-shot or something anyways, because I really like the idea. I don't know, we'll see.  
> Thank you so much guys for making this fic what it is. It's the most popular fic I've ever written, and that's because of you guys. Thank you so much. I will definitely be writing more ML fan fiction in the future (I don't have any ideas for one currently, but that could change at any time). I hope I've given you something to enjoy in the first month of hiatus. Please check out the other break dancing fics as well as the Miraculous Moves tag on Tumblr for more break dancing amazingness.  
> Here's to like 7 more months of hiatus hell, guys, cheers.


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